Identifying barriers and challenges in the application of information and communication technology in Iranian schools.

The overall purpose of this study was to identify barriers and challenges in the application of information and communication technology in Iranian schools. The research method was conducted with an approach mixed with exploratory design (in-depth and exploratory interviews with refining). The statistical population of the study consisted of all school principals in Iran (105968 people) who were selected as a sample using random-cluster sampling method based on Cochran's formula. In order to collect data by field method, a researcher-made questionnaire on barriers and challenges of using information and communication technology with 75 questions and 14 components was used. The face and content validity of the tool was approved by experts; And its convergent validity was calculated using the coefficients of mean extraction variance (AVE). Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyze the data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS20 and PLS software. In this study, we seek to identify barriers and challenges in the use of information and communication technology in Iranian schools. Therefore, the main question of the present study is: "What are the obstacles and challenges in the use of information and communication technology in Iranian schools?" "And what is the share of each of these obstacles?" Therefore, in the present study, we have tried to identify the obstacles and challenges in the application of information and communication technology in Iranian schools and to determine the share of each of the obstacles and challenges and to answer the following questions.
Question one: What are the obstacles and challenges in the application of information and communication technology in Iranian schools?
Question two: What is the share of each of the obstacles and challenges in the application of information and communication technology in Iranian schools?
the results showed that; Barriers and challenges in the application of information and communication technology with fourteen components (structural barriers, educational barriers, barriers to human resources, barriers to equipment and teaching materials, managerial barriers, barriers to teacher support services, lack of teacher cognitive readiness, lack of teacher training to teach in the new model Teaching, motivational barriers, cultural barriers, economic barriers, social barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers) that the component of not training teachers to teach in the new teaching model has the highest share and the component of individual barriers has the lowest share.
To investigate and answer this research question, a researcher-made questionnaire on barriers and challenges in the use of information and communication technology was used as a data collection tool. This questionnaire has fourteen components (structural barriers, educational barriers, human resource barriers, equipment and teaching materials barriers, managerial barriers, barriers to teacher support services, teacher cognitive unpreparedness, lack of teacher training to teach in the new teaching model, motivational barriers, barriers). Cultural, economic barriers, social barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers) were compiled with 102 questions. In the descriptive review of the data, due to the low calculated average and non-confirmation of t-test, a single sample of the questionnaire was removed and the final questionnaire of barriers and challenges of ICT application with 75 questions through heuristic factor analysis to discover dimensions and components and their rankings were used.
Kaiser-Meyer-Alkin and Bartlett fitness tests were used to determine the adequacy and necessary conditions of the data to perform exploratory factor analysis. KMO statistic is an indicator of the adequacy of variables and a value higher than 0.7 is suitable for performing factor analysis. The Bartlett test is also one of the methods for determining the appropriateness of data, and for a factor analysis model to be useful and meaningful, its variables need to be correlated.
In the interview section, first the key points related to each semi-structured interview were marked in writing by listening to the recorded interviews and studying the notes taken during the interview, then the key and basic points were extracted from each interview. Then, using the classification of key points in the form of professional terms, the necessary labeling was done. Then, the labeled terms of each interviewee were organized in the form of a table and based on the relationship and proportion they had with each other, in the form of components.
Twenty experts were first identified for interview and the interview process began. After the ninth person interview, 380 indicators in the variable of barriers and challenges of using information and communication technology were listed and categorized into 14 components. Preliminary studies and coding revealed that each component was mentioned and emphasized by experts at least twice, but the researcher continued the interview process until the tenth person until he was faced with data saturation. For each interviewee who was an expert in the field, a summary table was prepared and all the key points mentioned by that person in that table were summarized and categorized and the results were presented.
The results of Table 1 showed that in this study, based on the information obtained through interviews with experts, 14 components of "structural barriers, barriers to education, barriers to human resources, barriers to equipment and teaching materials, management barriers, barriers to teacher support services, lack of Teachers' cognitive readiness, lack of teacher training for teaching in the new teaching model, motivational barriers, cultural barriers, economic barriers, social barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers were identified and categorized. Finally, the process of combining the interviews was conducted and the results were presented:
Each indicator was mentioned and emphasized by the interviewees at least twice and up to six times. In total, after the implementation of the index integration process, 102 indicators in fourteen components were identified and approved, which were converted into a questionnaire of experts and used to confirm their final opinion to obtain the final questionnaire.
It was used to analyze the interview data through content analysis. In this project, the steps of analyzing the collected interview data have been done in two stages of open coding and axial coding.
Open coding is an analytical process through which concepts are identified and their features and dimensions are discovered from within. In the open coding stage, the researcher identifies the concepts and expands them according to their characteristics and dimensions. At this stage, the researcher, from the heart of the raw data, introduces the basic categories related to the phenomenon under study by segmenting the information, forming categories of information about the phenomenon under study, asking about the data, comparing cases, events, and so on. It deals with other states of phenomena to gain similarities and differences.
- In the next stage of axial coding, the researcher puts one of the categories at the center of the process under study and exploration (main dimension) and then connects the other categories (components) to it. In this regard, in this study, the main dimensions and related components have been identified.
Therefore, in the first stage, the main dimensions and components were presented based on the process of open and pivotal coding of data obtained from in-depth and exploratory interviews. Conceptual codes were presented and the priority of each factor was determined based on the frequency of concepts mentioned in interviews. Concepts were the main unit of analysis for open and pivotal coding. When carefully analyzing the data, the concepts were generated through coding, directly from the participants' interview copies or according to their common uses. Copies of interviews were reviewed regularly to find the main and sub-categories and the importance and priority of these categories. Data were analyzed at sentence and phrase level for each interview and concept codes were extracted from the transcripts of the interviews. Sometimes a sentence was related to more than one concept. By extracting common conceptual codes and by refining and eliminating duplicate items, by using theoretical foundations and applying some conceptual codes, concepts were identified and specified and by refining and reducing these concepts, they were organized in the form of sub-categories (components). The results of this study showed that; Barriers and challenges in the application of information and communication technology with fourteen components include as (structural barriers, educational barriers, barriers to human resources, barriers to equipment and teaching materials, managerial barriers, barriers to teacher support services, lack of teacher cognitive readiness, lack of teacher training to teach in the new model Teaching, motivational barriers, cultural barriers, economic barriers, social barriers, organizational barriers and individual barriers).