Alignment of policy and practice: EFL teachers implementing ICT in Saudi Arabian male public secondary schools

Abstract

For the last several decades there has been tremendous expansion in the educational facilities in Saudi Arabian schools. More recently, educational policies have placed a greater emphasis on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in schools. Consequently, many national educational projects have been conducted to promote ICT use in Saudi Arabian schools. However, these trials have resulted in poor quality outcomes; particularly in the EFL context. The purpose of this paper is to describe proposed research to investigate the alignment between EFL teachers' knowledge of and attitudes towards implementing ICT into the EFL classroom, and what the educational policy dictates to be optimal ICT practice in Saudi Arabian male public secondary schools. The proposed research utilises a mixed method research design with three sources of data. First, a document analysis of education policy will be conducted to determine the expectations of ICT implementation in schools. Second, an online survey will be employed to determine EFL teachers' knowledge of and attitudes towards implementing ICT into the EFL classroom. Third, a purposive sample of EFL teachers will be invited to participate in an in-depth interview to clarify any disparity between their practice and what was stated in the policy. This paper describes the methodology to be used in the proposed research.