English language teachers’ professional uses of email

Abstract

In terms of education, e‐mail has cemented its importance, as well as its status, as the overarching Internet tool. Specifically in the research of teacher education and teacher development, e‐mails have been found to be empowering teachers’ collaborative and networking practices. Such use of e‐mails stimulates and refreshes teachers’ professional development. Intrigued by Bowman et al.’s findings and also realizing the potentials of e‐mail in proliferating knowledge relating to teachers’ professional development, the authors carried out a study to determine Malaysian English language teachers’ professional uses of e‐mail and the effects or contributions to the their professional learning, development and lives. Both quantitative and qualitative data are reported and compared to Bowman’s findings to see the relevance of the use of e‐mail in enhancing teachers’ professional learning and development.

Notes

1. Recently, after this study was completed, the Malaysian government embarked on a project to ensure that all Malaysian schools are connected with a broadband Internet connection under the ‘mySchoolNet’ nationwide project (http://myschoolnet.ppk.kpm.my).

2. These practices, though interpreted as important, are more skewed to the ‘slightly important’ category mainly because the difference of the mean score of academic research for Masters/Ph.D. and the category ‘slightly important’, for instance, is just 0.13. Readers should apply a similar understanding of this phenomenon for other comparable situations in this article.