School Teachers' Perceptions and Views about the Use of Technology in Relation to Government Education Policy

Following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the ICT sector was liberated after many years of restrictions and Iraqi teachers were expected to use ICT regularly in their teaching. This thesis sets out to examine the Iraqi English language teachers’ perceptions of using ICT in their teaching in relation to the government education policy and the future of ICT in their schools. Using a sociocultural approach, data was collected by utilising semi-structured interviews. A total of 12 English language teachers and 12 headteachers from 12 schools in two districts in Baghdad were selected.

While there has been extensive research into the usage of ICT in teaching, much of this has concentrated on stable education contexts where reforms normally undergo systemic transition. However, this has not been the case in unstable contexts, like the Iraqi one, which seem to have been overlooked by research. This research attempts to address this gap by studying the Iraqi context in which ICT-novice teachers are working in very difficult environments without a specific ICT education policy or appropriate training.

The findings show that there is a widespread positive perception of ICT. The participants identified a number of encouraging factors linked to the promising outcomes that ICT could bring to the future. They also indicated some hindering factors linked to not addressing the logistics of implementing ICT. The study found that when using ICT, the teachers were more influenced by the policy in their schools than the MoE policy because they were either unable to understand the government policy or unaware of its details and requirements. Finally, the teachers predicted some future changes in their role as a result of the ICT and they hoped for an overall improvement strategy in education and more sophisticated teacher training programmes.