Cultural impact on teacher-educators’ use of technologies in their pedagogical practices : a study in the Maldives

Abstract

A substantial body of literature discusses the complexity of integrating technology into teachers’ pedagogical practices. However, the literature provides limited understanding about the impact of teachers’ culture on their use of technologies. I argue that technological and pedagogical practices of teachers cannot be fully understood without considering the social and cultural norms of their specific cultures. This paper aims to explain the impact of Maldivian culture on teacher-educators’ technological and pedagogical practices. My research used an ethnographic methodology linked with Bourdieu’s (1977) habitus as a lens. The data were gathered from eleven teacher-educators who work in a Maldivian university context. The process of ethnography took place during two visits to the research site. In the first visit, I spent six weeks “hanging out”1 with the participants, interviewed them individually, and observed six participants’ classroom teaching. In the second visit, I spent five weeks hanging out and organised focus groups with ten participants. Accordingly, follow-up interviews were carried out with five participants to clarify the main understanding of teacher educators’ habitus. The finding was generated through various strategies adhering to grounded theory. Key findings demonstrated that teacher-educators’ technological and pedagogical habitus was influenced by the cultural practice related to their learning norms and some aspects of their institutional context. The study revealed that teacher-educators adopted specific technologies available in their workplace relying on benefits gained for their pedagogical purposes. However, these pedagogical purposes were much influenced by the social cultural norms of the Maldives. As a result, the participants formed technological (PowerPoint-assisted) and pedagogical (content-oriented) habitus. This study offers valuable insights for understanding the impact of culture and habitus on teachers’ practices and their use of technologies both in schools and university contexts