Collisions between the Worldviews of International ICT Policy-Makers and a Deep Rural Community in South Africa: Assumptions, Interpretation, Implementation, and Reality

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to understand and learn from the collisions between the underlying assumptions embedded in UNESCO's ICT Competency Standards for Teachers policy framework and the realities that face a deep rural Afrocentric community in South Africa. These collisions ultimately are about the manifestation of a deeper issue, namely collisions between worldviews. Although some preliminary issues regarding policy conflicts are highlighted, the primary focus is on understanding collisions that have emerged from the community entry phases of policy alignment and the introduction of the ICT for Development (ICT4D) artifact. A critical theoretical underpinning is presented which also constitutes the departing values and thinking pursued by a team of academics which, in collaboration with local community visionaries, facilitates ongoing ICT training initiatives in the community. The author writes from his position as the “outsider” champion in this project; and due to his commitment and the length of time that he has been immersed in the training and all other aspects of the project, an ethnographic approach is adopted. The paper contributes to ICT4D discourses by representing a South African perspective on the international ICT policy frameworks. Consequently, compelling issues for further research are highlighted, including examples and practical guidelines for international ICT policy alignment and implementation in the deep rural Afrocentric context.

Keywords:

• ICT policy
• community entry
• critical social theory

Acknowledgements

This paper is an adapted version of a more detailed feedback document to UNESCO who partly funded a teacher training project in Happy Valley. The author acknowledges the Department of Informatics at the UP under whose affiliation most of this research was done. The author also acknowledges the invaluable feedback from the reviewers and delegates at the 2nd Annual SIG GlobDev Workshop in Phoenix, Arizona, in December 2009, where a prior version of this paper was presented, as well as the feedback from UNESCO and the author's project partners from the Happy Valley community and elsewhere.

Notes on contributor

Kirstin Krauss is currently affiliated to the Department of Information Systems at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. His primary research interests are ICT4D, ICT policy, and associated regulatory level implementation and critique. His PhD work comprises a three-year ethnographic study in a traditional community in a deep rural part of South Africa. His interest in ICT4D evolved from an intense realization of ongoing ICT failures in developing contexts and a subsequent need to understand how ICT should be ethically and critically introduced in deep rural developing communities. He has been associated with international conferences and workshops, such as the IDIA Conference, AIS Special Interest Group on Global Development and the IFIP WG 9.4 ICT4D Research Voices from Africa workshop.