Local Construction of Strategies and Models to use Information and Communication Technologies in a Rural Elementary School in Mexico.

• In Event: Poster session III
  In Poster Session: Poster session 3

Proposal

Based on a qualitative study with an ethnographic approach, this research documents the models and strategies that the community (school authorities, teachers, students, and parents) of a rural elementary school in central Mexico has developed to locally solve some problems presented for the use of ICT. It is particularly analyzed how the school community translates (Dussel 2014) ICT insertion and digital inclusion policies in its context of marginality.

Two theoretical approaches framework this research. For one hand, Latin American critical studies on digital inclusion policies in public schools are of particular interest (Dussel, 2014, 2018; González, 2008; Gonzalez, 2014; Kalman & Guerrero, 2013). These approaches note the unidirectional character of ICT insertion and digital inclusion policies (González 2008; Dussel 2014). On the other hand, this research was conducted from the New Literacy Studies perspective (Street 2016, 1984) that originally is interested in the analysis of particular uses of reading and writing in local contexts. Further, this perspective has also been used to include the study of the use of digital technologies as tools for learning, communication and the production of meaning in different contexts (López, 2014; Prinsloo and Lemphane 2014; Kalman & Hernández, 2018).

Data was collected and built under a qualitative ethnographic method (Maxwell 1996). During the 2016-2017 school year, the researchers carried out fieldwork, which consisted of semi-structured interviews (Hoepfl 1997) to the school authorities, teachers, students, and parents; class observations; digitization of documents considered as evidence of school digital practice, and demonstrations of the use of digital devices (Hernández 2015) in which students participated. The continuous presence of the researchers in the school allowed data collection based on observations and informal conversations about the daily activities of different members of the school community.

Data shows how the school community adapt the guidelines of the ICT government insertion programs through local practices, such as the use of economic resources generated by the school, the incorporation of students’ and teachers’ own devices for school activities and the subcontracting of Internet connectivity. Also, the analysis indicates that the community conditions of marginality (lack of cultural services like community libraries, and poor Internet connectivity) shape the local models and strategies regarding the availability and access to ICT in educational practices. Based on specific interests and through the articulation of different elements (Dussel 2014; Warschauer 2003) such as social relations within the school to build consensus, the institutional structure that offers certain autonomy in making decisions about the use of economic resources, and the infrastructure for connectivity available in the rural area, the community has developed local strategies for the availability and access to ICT.

Given the background, it is necessary for theorists and those involved in public policy design and planning, to pay more attention to local strategies for ICT availability and access, in order to have more evidence so as to build proposals for ICT access along with the school community, as González (2014; 2008) points out: from the periphery to the center and from the bottom to the top.

Authors

• María Guadalupe López-Sandoval, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

• Oscar Enrique Hernández-Razo, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Unidad Lerma.