Implications of the Absence of Qualified Technicians in Colleges of Education in Ghana to Support Pre-Service Teachers’ Technology Training

Abstract

Efforts have been made by governments and educational stakeholders to inject funds in procuring and expanding technology infrastructure for teacher training institutions and equipping teacher educators through various intervention programmes to ensure that teacher educators are able to deliver technology integrated lessons and teach teacher trainees to be able to use technology to deliver instruction yet there have been challenges with using technology to teach by pre-service teachers. This study aimed at investigating into the presence or otherwise of qualified technicians in colleges of education in Ghana and how this is affecting the training of pre-service teachers to integrate technology into teaching and learning. A qualitative approach was adopted to gather data from teacher educators and pre-service teachers in order to verify the availability of qualified technicians in colleges to aid in teacher trainees’ professional development to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Four student focus groups consisting of not less than ten students in each group together with a purposive sample of four tutors teaching technology related courses and other courses participated in the study. The qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic approach. The study adopted a qualitative approach because it aimed at digging deep into the problem in order to know more about how the presence or otherwise of qualified technicians in the colleges and how this is affecting both trainee teachers and teacher educators to develop their technical competencies in handling and using technology for instructional purposes. It was revealed that most colleges were without technicians as the government failed to provide qualified technicians for the colleges. Colleges are therefore calling on the government and stakeholders to provide them with qualified technicians to enable them fix their technical problems, lend a helping hand to their tutors and support to develop pre-service teachers’ technical expertise to overcome their technical fears to be able to use technology for instruction. It is therefore being recommended that stakeholders and as well as the government help provide colleges with qualified technicians to help equip pre-service teachers with technical abilities to teach effectively with technology in the classroom.