Teacher Perspectives on Peer-Peer Collaboration and Education Technologies in Rural Tanzanian Classrooms

Abstract

Teachers' perspectives are critical for understanding classroom culture. They create and enforce rules in classrooms and are responsible for educating students using methods that they perceive to be most effective. Therefore, creating supplementary education technologies without understanding teachers and the culture they promote may lead to interventions that are underutilized or ineffective. Our research specifically investigates how technologies that foster student collaboration fit into teachers' views of learning in a rural context with limited existing collaboration scaffolds. We interviewed 24 teachers and observed 39 classrooms in a rural Tanzanian village to understand how teachers value peer-peer collaboration in their teaching practice, and the unique challenges they face educating students in rural classroom settings. We uncover insights that inform the design and deployment of supplementary education technologies to support teachers in rural Tanzania and similar demographics.