A phenomenographic study of lecturers’ conceptions of using learning technology in a Pakistani context

ABSTRACT

While there are many studies exploring the phenomenon of lecturers’ use of learning technology within teaching practices in western higher education contexts, currently we know little about this phenomenon within less developed countries. In the paper, we discuss the findings from a phenomenographic study of lecturers’ conceptions of using learning technology in a Pakistani university context. We describe how lecturers’ use of learning technology is underpinned by their pedagogical understanding. Furthermore, we show that prevailing contextual socio-economic and technological limitations affect lecturers’ daily pedagogical practices and use of learning technology. The results of the study demonstrate the importance and influence of lecturers’ pedagogical understandings and of contextual limitations within daily teaching practices on their experiences of using learning technology. The findings have wider implications for our understanding of the variation in ways learning technology is understood and used within pedagogical practice in other developing and more developed contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Learning technology
• pedagogical understanding
• conceptions of teaching
• phenomenography
• developing contexts

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the research participants and host university for their willingness to be involved in the study. We would also like to thank Michael Reynolds, Adrian Kirkwood and the journal reviewers for their extensive and insightful comments on earlier versions of the paper. Finally, we thank Kiran Trehan for her important contribution as co-supervisor to the original research used in this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Vivien Hodgson is Professor of Networked Management Learning at Lancaster University Management School, UK and guest Obel Chair at e-Learning Lab, University of Aalborg, Denmark. She is the co-editor of Springer book series on Researching Networked Learning and recently stood down as one of the founding co-chair of the international bi-annual conference series ‘Networked Learning’. She is currently leading an across faculty initiative to support staff to adopt and use digital learning tools and activities innovatively and creatively across a range of Management School programmes at UG and PG level.

Uzair Shah is a Lecturer based at Lancaster University Management School. His research interests include studying use of ICT within teaching and learning practices, and ICT for developing higher education. He is also interested in exploring professional practices using qualitative research methods. He is involved in a faculty-wide e-learning initiative within the Management School and currently working on digitalizing aspects of a UG module to support student learning experiences.

Notes

1. Participants used both English and Urdu languages in the interviews. Urdu interviews were translated into English by one of the authors. All names in participant's quotes are pseudo names to protect their identity.