Leadership practices and support structures enabling teachers’ informal learning for educational technology use: an appreciative inquiry approach

Abstract

Teachers increasingly turn to informal learning but often encounter challenges in their agency to improve technology integration practices. Through a qualitative paradigm and partly adopting the strength-based Appreciative Inquiry (AI) method, this study explored best leadership practices and considered how teachers’ self-directed learning might be enabled to better support technology use in pedagogy. Applying the discovery and dream phases of AI, the study engaged Ghana’s teachers, headteachers and education officials in constructive phone dialogues to identify practices that foster teachers’ informal learning. Different shared themes emerged through thematic analysis, revealing enabling leadership and support mechanisms contributing to teachers’ self-directed learning. Leadership support from key individuals at home, the district, and the school ecosystem surfaced as enablers for engagement in informal learning during the discovery phase. At the dream stage, teacher motivation, access to computers, headteachers’ leadership for collaborative learning, and dedicated time for independent and informal collaboration were envisioned to nurture teachers’ cointinuing self-directed learning. Findings have implications for education researchers and leaders to transition from deficits towards a strength-based inquiry as a promising tool to uncover inspiring leadership practices, actors, and support structures that cultivate and reinforce teachers’ self-directed learning to supplement formal professional development for technology integration.