Date of Conferral

5-29-2024

Date of Award

May 2024

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Education

Advisor

Ronald Paige

Abstract

There have been many innovations targeting literacy teaching and learning in small countries such as Jamaica, but changes to literacy teaching practices are rarely sustained beyond the life of the initial projects. The purpose of this study was to understand teachers’ rationale for changes to literacy teaching practices that were and were not sustained beyond the life of the initial Tablets in Schools (TIS) project of 2014 in Jamaica. Grounded in Lewin’s and Rogers’s change theories, the study’s conceptual framework communicated that impactful innovation leads to sustainable change. The two research questions sought to establish how primary school teachers explained (a) changes made and (b) changes not made to their literacy teaching practices since implementation of the TIS. This basic qualitative study used semistructured interviews with a criterion-based sample of 13 teachers across four elementary schools who taught literacy and had participated in the TIS project. Thematic data analysis was facilitated by data management software and a rigorous coding process. The results showed that teachers explained changes made to their literacy teaching practices in terms of the supportive context in which they operated. The results also showed that teachers’ explanations of changes not made were linked to their fixed prevailing mindset, their flawed perceptions of technology, and use of the tablets for activities other than literacy teaching and learning. The study has social change implications for future innovations in Jamaican education developed to achieve the fourth United Nations Sustainable Development Educational goal of inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all students.

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