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The field of education has witnessed many changes and reforms in policy as well as numerous Information and Communication Technology (ICT) operational initiatives attempting to improve the process of teaching and learning. The interest of schools’ stakeholders in the potential advantages that ICT offers to the teaching and learning process has been rising (Kong et al., 2014). However, in Saudi Arabia, the ICT use by teachers for teaching and learning is still low, despite many ICT initiatives that the Ministry of Education (MOE) has introduced to improve education quality. Therefore, this study investigated teachers’ ICT use in classrooms in boys’ secondary schools in the city of Al-Rass in Saudi Arabia. This research aims to understand the current state of ICT in education in Saudi Arabia; and to understand how ICT is used by teachers in classroom for the process of teaching and learning; and to reveal any factors hindering ICT integration in the classroom. The Human Capital Theory (HCT) and Capabilities Approach (CA) were the basis of understanding why ICT is important in the educational process. The methodology adopted is an interpretivist qualitative approach using a triangulation method to analyse different methods and sources. Interviews were conducted at all levels of the education system: Five policy makers within the MOE; five secondary schools in Al-Rass city in Saudi Arabia were visited and interviews were conducted with five head teachers, 25 teachers who participated in 25 classroom observations and 25 student focus groups (100 students in total) who attended the classroom observations. The findings were analysed based on thematic analysis. The study’s findings using the triangulation method indicated that the government has paid huge attention to ICT for education development through relevant initiatives. However, the findings revealed the current situation of ICT is unsatisfactory and has not reflected the expectations and goals of the educational development initiatives. The findings revealed the absence of ICT policy, lack of teachers’ ICT use in the educational process, and internal and external barriers hindering the successful ICT integration in the process of teaching and learning. This included the absence of ICT policy, lack of professional development training, especially on how ICT can be used in relation to pedagogy and subject, and school management support, especially in terms of the teachers’ workload and ICT resource provision requests from authorities. The main implication the study concludes with is once ICT policy is well designed, all hindering factors could be addressed and as a result the integration of ICT into teaching and learning process could improve. |
