CPD and the development of teacher TPCK for technology integration: a hermeneutic phenomenological study

Abstract

This paper explores the role of Continuous Professional Development (CPD) in developing teachers’ competence in integrating technology into their practice to better understand the provision of equitable and quality teaching and learning. Employing a phenomenological research paradigm, underpinned by a hermeneutic phenomenological methodological research design, data was collected from a purposive sample of 10 primary school teachers in the Western Cape. Narrative and semi-structured interviews provided a rich and textured account of the diverse ways in which teachers’ competence in technology integration was developed by CPD. The data explication process applied, suggests that teaching and learning resources were important factors in which CPD model participants were selected. However, teacher agency exercised within structural and cultural conditions significantly shaped the effective integration of technology in the diverse classroom context. This paper provides a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between teacher context and CPD’s effect on Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge.