Exploring Business Studies student teachers’ experiences on the integration of educational technological resources at uMgungundlovu District.

Abstract

Student teachers’ have been raved to move from traditional to online pedagogy to tie with the demands of the fourth (4th) industrial revolution. Hence, schools makes provision of educational technological resources which may include but not limited to smart board, computers, application software. However, the lack of skills to integrate technology into curriculum hinders effective online pedagogy, and this results in the poor curriculum enactment/implementation. Consequently, This qualitative case study thus aims to explore experiences of student teachers on the integration of educational technological resources in curriculum in South African public schools. Furthermore, this qualitative case study draws on Ten (10) student-teachers experiences on the integration of educational technological resources. Moreover, these student-teachers were purposively and conveniently selected because they were teaching Business studies and accessible. One-on-one semi-structured WhatsApp interviews, online reflective activities and zoom group discussion was used to generate data which was thematically analysed using inductive and deductive reasoning. Findings articulated that the inadequate training and ignorance of student teachers to integrate educational technological resources into curriculum enhance them to draw from different/varying experiences (formal, informal and conformal), and this creates inconsistency towards achieving desired outcomes. This study therefore sought to find and alternative theoretical and a practical model that will balance experiences in order to ensure a successful integration of educational technological resources into curriculum.