Kinsley NdengeCentre for Education Policy Development,

Johannesburg-South Africa

“… the root of counter-development obstacles to ICT might be the extent to which the information society conveys aspirations, privileges technologies, information and knowledge that are irrelevant to the way the majority of people in many communities in developing countries live their lives.”

Chrisanthi Avgerou and Shirin Madon, (2005)

Access to infrastructure (Power, IT).

Limited formal education.

Insufficient training.

Capacity building.

Financial and political Constraints.

Social and Cultural challenges.

These are the „African Problems‟. The CDA related researches will assist in dealing with such issues.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context.

TEUN A. VAN DIJK (1997)

CDA analyzes text that are fully embedded with culture and that could modify social ontology, materializing the movement of power, (Political or non political), stimulating dominance and hegemony of some groups over others.

In this way, through the analysis of discourses/Text, CDA gives researchers a fruitful opportunity to understand the machinery that arouses and excites change in society.

Context

Language

Society

Discourse

Text: views text as contextually and peculiarly generated

Language: CDA views language as a system of signs, stimulated by interaction that can help human beings to construct and construe reality.

Power Imbalances/Relation.

Dominance

Inequality.

Tool PurposeSpecific

Place

“Technology should be like oxygen:

Ubiquitous, Necessary, and Invisible.”

Chris Lehmann

PurposeSpecific

Place Tool

Research paradigm could be either qualitative or quantitative or mixed method where possible

Data can be collected using questionnaires, interviews or Focus group discussions.

Data can be collated into themes for analysis.

Analysis of data could also be either descriptive or narrative

Recent study from Cameroon.

(Analyzing Cameroons ICT Policy and trainee teachers perception of policy

implimentation using CDA)

Comprising of trainee teachers.

Questions: Do you think the government creates

enough opportunities for use and adoption of ICTs?

Do you think computers are the solution to economic development?

The following texts were generated from the above questions:

Text from Mobile Application Text from Mobile application.

I think ICTs will greatly facilitate the learning process. However, the facilities for this are not readily available, affordable and accessible to all. If the government could look into availability, affordability and accessibility, then this will go a long way in helping in the learning process.

It’s true that ICTs are an important form of communication hence can greatly make the learning process easy, but it is important to know how we can sustain its use as well, not just making them available.

I believe ICTs are also good but it is frustrating when the ICT equipment is always not working. So we abandon the use. I think the government has other interest, not in education.

T 6: I think ICTs will greatly facilitate the learning process. However, the facilities for this are not readily available, affordable and accessible to all. If the government could look into availability, affordability and accessibility, then this will go a long way in helping in the learning process.

T 7: It’s true that ICTs are an important form of communication hence can greatly make the learning process easy, but it is important to know how we can sustain its use as well, not just making them available.

T 8: I believe ICTs are also good but it is frustrating when the ICT equipment is always not working. So we abandon the use. Ithink the government has other interest, not in education.

I think ICTs will greatly facilitate the learning process. However, the facilities for this are not readily available, affordable and accessible to all. If the government could look into availability, affordability and accessibility, then this will go a long way in helping in the learning process.

It’s true that ICTs are an important form of communication hence can greatly make the learning process easy, but it is important to know how we can sustain its use as well, not just making them available.

I believe ICTs are also good but it is frustrating when the ICT equipment is always not working. So we abandon the use. I think the government has other interest, not in education.

Given existing social practice its hard for students to say anything negative about computers and technology.

Lack of agency and overall disempowerment evident in the texts. People seem to be waiting for government intervention. (power imbalances, inequality and contradictions between rhetoric and the reality expressed by people)

Most of the peoples of the world, especially from the developing countries, are confronted by the challenge of exclusion in the context of the global economy, in whose development modern information and communications technologies (ICTs) play a vital role'” ( Education Minister)

Sustainable ICT integration needs a complete understanding of what community needs are.

We need to learn to listen to the voice of the people.

CDA is an important qualitative research tool which can be used to understand context, which could shape how projects are designed and implemented.

Radio

CD/ DVD

Memory Sticks

Television

CD player

Audio Recorders

Mobile Phones and applications.

Computers and related software.

*We need to start looking at problems and finding appropriate solutions /tools to solve them , relevant to our context.

Merci Beaucoup@massa_ngwa

kinsley@africicted.za.org