Application of Participatory Learning and Action Methods in Educational Technology Research A Rural Bangladeshi Case

This chapter examines barriers and methods to identify barriers to educational technology in a rural technical vocational education and training institute in Bangladesh. It also examines how the application of participatory learning and action methods can provide information for barrier research and stakeholders in and around the school to pave the way for change by building awareness of both educational technology and the complexity of barriers. In this case study, school stakeholders are involved in the research and awareness-building process through three different data-production methods: cultural transect, problem-tree analysis and focus-group discussion. The paper concludes by categorizing the barriers identified at different levels: micro (roughly the individual level at which the lack of knowledge and motivation are significant barriers), meso (roughly the school level at which the lack of teachers and computers are significant barriers) and macro (roughly the national level at which the lack of government planning and the lack of training of teachers are significant barriers). Finally, the paper also concludes that applied participatory learning and action-oriented techniques showed potential to provide researchers and local practitioners with situated insights that could not just have been lifted out of existing research literature.