Over the past thirty years, the World Bank has intensified its activities relating to
education in developing countries. Notable developments in the World Banks policy
on education include promotion of innovative delivery, which refers to the use of new
and existing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education. The
World Bank claims that the unique characteristics of ICTs have the potential to produce
new forms of delivery in higher education that can overcome existing barriers to
education and facilitate student-centred learning (World Bank, 1999, 2005).
Many forms of innovative delivery, such as distance education and open learning, are
not new forms of instruction. However, promotion of innovative delivery as a global
priority for education in developing countries is new. In this thesis, I interrogate the
World Banks assumptions concerning innovative delivery as expressed in their
landmark policy statement on education, the 1999 Education Sector Strategy Report
(ES99) (World Bank, 1999). I focus on the assumptions that underlie views put forward
in the ES99 on the nature of technology and its role in education, the role of innovative
delivery in overcoming existing barriers to education, and the potential of innovative
delivery to facilitate student-centred learning. A central aim of this thesis was to better
understand the socio-cultural and pedagogical issues that may arise when these
assumptions are put into practice in different cultural contexts. This was achieved by
comparing the assumptions put forward in the ES99 with the reported perceptions of, attitudes toward, and use of ICTs by students and lecturers from three different cultural
contexts.
Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used to gather detailed empirical data
on end-users perceptions, attitudes to and use of online technologies at universities in
Australia, Malaysia and the United States. The findings suggested that across all three
cultural contexts, respondents attitudes were not consistent with the World Banks
technocratic view of innovative delivery. Moreover, the findings cast doubt on the
extent to which technology-mediated education can overcome existing barriers to
education and facilitate a student-centred approach to education. I conclude by
suggesting that the World Bank needs to adopt a more questioning stance toward the
potential effectiveness of innovative delivery. Other findings point to the contextual
nature of technology adoption and the pedagogical implications of this mode of delivery
across cultural contexts.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221870 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Burgessmj@yahoo.com, Madeline Jane Burgess |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright Madeline Jane Burgess |
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