Enriching Gross National Happiness through Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

The stance taken in this study was based on two premises: GNH principles and values need to be entrenched in education, and ICT has great potential to transform learning. With these in mind, this study set out to explore the capacity of ICT to enhance GNH principles and values in pre-service teacher education in Bhutan. Set in a pre-service teacher college in Bhutan, a mixed methods approach utilising convergent parallel design was employed in the study. Quantitative data was collected using a web-based survey instrument to determine: pre-service teacher and lecturer attitudes towards GNH and GNH in education; pre-service teacher and lecturer attitudes towards ICT in education; pre-service teacher and lecturer attitudes towards ICT enhancing GNH principles and values; and pre-service teacher and lecturer TPACK. Qualitative data was collected using focus group interviews for the preservice teachers and semi-structured interviews for the lecturers to provide a richer view of the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the webbased survey data. Thematic analysis was utilised to analyse the focus group and interview data. The study revealed that pre-service teachers and lecturers viewed both GNH and ICT positively indicating a strong enabler to using ICT to enhance GNH principles and values at the study site. However, there are areas where attention needs to be paid if ICT is to be used to enhance GNH principles and values. For example, the lecturers in their teaching do not specifically stress GNH principles and values but rather assume that GNH principles and values are being taught unintentionally. However, results from the study suggest that in order for GNH principles and values to be enhanced by ICT, they need to be explicitly taught and modelled by lecturers. The study also discovered that both pre-service teachers and lecturers use very few ICT tools and for a limited range of activities. Furthermore, these ICT tools are mostly being used at either the substitution or augmentation level as viewed through the SAMR lens. In order for the affordances of ICT to enhance GNH principles and values to be fully realised, ICT tools need to be implemented at the Transformation domain of the SAMR model. This is where the level of ICT usage is either modification where technology allows for significant task redesign or redefinition where technology allows for the creation of new tasks previously not possible.