BARRIERS AND CONSTRAINTS TO EPISTEMOLOGICAL ACCESS TO ONLINE LEARNING IN MOZAMBIQUE SCHOOLS

Abstract

While global corporations and western governments have subtly and systematically peddled the utopia and hype about the capacity of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to radically transform learning and pedagogy and African governments have unquestionably acquiesced with heft investments in ICTs the education sector, few academics and policy makers have ever questioned and taken stock of the contribution of technology to online learning. More importantly, the heavy investments in ICTs infrastructure modeled along Western ICTs hubs have been parachuted without sufficient contextualisation to suit the structural realities of resource constrained environments. Moreso, hardly have interventions been aligned with academics and learners’ extent of e-readiness and ICT literacy levels to ensure effective appropriation, adaptation and sustained use of ICTs. Drawing on African examples and Mozambican education system as a case study, we demonstrate the complexities and subtle nuances of consolidating ICTs access for teaching and learning in an environment riddled by abject poverty, weak erratic power supply, underdeveloped ICTs architecture and cultural barriers that undermine certain societal groups’ access to ICTs. We argue that the institution of a robust ICT architecture at national and institutional levels should be constructively aligned with its grassroot implementation (at institutional levels) to foster epistemological access to ICTs, the development of ‘best practices’ of pedagogy and a culturally responsive, knowledge rich environments. We further argue that ICTs should become bridging zones for the integration and alignment of community based knowledge (tacit, personal knowledge) and institutional (school) knowledge through creating liberal spaces for their experimentation with different forms of knowledge (Rambe forthcoming).