Teaching art and design in a digital age: challenges facing Ugandan teacher educators

Abstract

Although the use of digital technologies in teacher education has reached advanced stages in the developed world, it is still in its infancy in many developing countries, including Uganda. In their struggle to advance the use of digital technologies in teaching, educators face various challenges that prevent the successful adoption of such technologies in the classroom. This study explores the motivation and material accessibility challenges that art and design (A&D) educators in Uganda encounter when teaching with digital technologies and examines how they cope with these challenges. To address the research question, the study adopts a descriptive case study design that seeks to document the participants' accounts. Semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations were employed to collect data from teacher educators (TEs) and administrators (ADs) in two teacher training institutions (TTIs) in Uganda. The findings indicate that A&D TEs face accessibility challenges relating to motivation and material access. The educators use various strategies to cope with the existing challenges including peer support, continual practice, improvisation, lobbying for technical and financial support, and advocating for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).

Exploring Effective Practices in Managing Distance Learning for Teaching Art and Design in Bahrain

“…A study by Lapada et al (2020), for instance, revealed a strong correlation between readiness for distance teaching and the length of teaching experience in addition to the specialization. Tusiime et al (2020) confirmed the connection between the educators' specialization and their readiness for embracing technology in their pedagogical practices. They stated that some art teachers believe that technology is not compatible with art education and that it led to more opportunities for students to replicate art or to become reluctant to use their hands to draw.…”

“…These educators have had to swiftly redesign, plan, and prepare their digital course content and experiment with various approaches to figure out how to mitigate learning loss and make remote learning work successfully for art and design education. As the pandemic has taken its course, several educational needs, challenges, and opportunities emerged for educators and students as they struggled to deal with some conceptual and artistic limits that the online environment imposed (Dilmaç, 2020;Tusiime et al, 2020). In light of this transformation and all its consequent challenges, Meyer and Norman (2020) urged design educators to "modify design pedagogy to accommodate the many different styles and goals of 21 st century design" (p.22).…”

“…This can also exacerbate if the educator lacks competency in using technology (Öçal et al, 2021), and lacks digital literacy or the ability to use distance learning technologies including learning management systems (LMS), massive open online courses (MOOCs), and other e-resources (Tabieh et al, 2021). This incompetency is considered an intrinsic challenge by Tusiime et al (2020) who categorize the challenges that art and design educators face with distance education into intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, where intrinsic challenges relate to the educator while extrinsic challenges relate to the educational institution. In some cases, the incompetency may be due to resistance to the use of digital technologies by some educators who may not consider technology to be part of their fundamental teaching roles and goals (Tusiime et al, 2020).…”

“…This incompetency is considered an intrinsic challenge by Tusiime et al (2020) who categorize the challenges that art and design educators face with distance education into intrinsic and extrinsic challenges, where intrinsic challenges relate to the educator while extrinsic challenges relate to the educational institution. In some cases, the incompetency may be due to resistance to the use of digital technologies by some educators who may not consider technology to be part of their fundamental teaching roles and goals (Tusiime et al, 2020).…”

“…According to Kini-Singh (2020), "Teachers across the world especially in the creative arts have found teaching online to be more work, requiring greater preparation and mental effort than in-person, classroom teaching" (p. 10). In addition, technical problems and lack of support to resolve them may discourage educators from employing digital tools in their pedagogical practices (Tusiime et al, 2020).…”