Consumer Studies educators’ digital technology use: A case in North West, South Africa

Abstract

Digital technologies have the potential to significantly promote education. Current generations of school learners are digital natives and will especially benefit from its incorporation into their educational processes. Incorporating digital technologies into education contributes toward preparing learners for life and the world of work. Increasingly, research reports on the use of digital technologies to support education in various school subjects. However, no such research could be uncovered for Consumer Studies (CS) – a valuable and meaningful South African school curriculum subject. As CS teachers have repeatedly reported a dearth of resources to foster education in the subject, digital technologies could contribute to ameliorating this problem. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to report on a study that explored CS teachers’ use of digital technologies to support teaching-learning in this valuable subject. The overarching goal of the research was to understand if and how CS teachers are utilising digital technologies for teaching-learning purposes and to develop recommendations for enhancing its use to buttress CS education in South Africa. An exploratory qualitative case study was conducted using purposive convenience sampling in the North West province. Twenty CS teachers voluntarily and anonymously completed an online questionnaire. The questionnaire’s items aimed to explore if and how these teachers utilise digital technologies in enacting the CS curriculum. Inductive data analysis was employed. The findings indicate that several CS teachers embrace digital technologies but with a limited range of educational intentions. Informed by these findings, recommendations are made to enhance the use of digital technologies as a teaching-learning resource in CS and support these educators in enacting the curriculum of this valuable subject.