Loading...
Educators’ perceptions of the influence of culture on social media use in education in Palestine
Authors
Editors
Other contributors
Affiliation
Epub Date
Issue Date
2023-04-28
Submitted date
Alternative
Abstract
The advance in employing digital technology in education is often accompanied by a dominance of Anglophone digital corporations and tools, and a dominance of Western models of education, resources, practices, and concepts. This influences many aspects of teaching and learning and causes ongoing threat to societies, cultures and communities outside the global and national mainstream, especially those that are small, marginal or fragile in terms of the preservation and enhancement of their own culture and institutions. This paper addresses these threats within the Palestinian context by reporting on a study that explored educators’ perceptions of the influence of culture on social media use in education. The conceptual framework that guided this study includes theories of Connectivism such as Siemens’ and theories of cultural dimensions such as Hofstede’s’. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 educators at three Palestinian educational institutions who apply different teaching modes. The findings reveal nine cultural aspects that influence educators’ perceptions of social media and its use for educational purposes. They also demonstrate the influence of culture on some Connectivist practices in the Palestinian context. Other factors, such as the Israeli occupation were found to affect educators’ practices and perceptions. The study reveals cultural aspects that are not included in Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions theory, and this serves to underline that Hofstede’s cultural dimensions only provides a partial or incomplete understanding of how culture influences educational technology use in the Palestinian context. The study provides a foundation for future thinking about decolonizing research methods, developing modern pedagogies and appropriating some global concepts within the Arab context.
Citation
Muhtaseb, R., Traxler, J., & Scott, H. (2023) Educators’ Perceptions of the Influence of Culture on Social Media Use in Education in Palestine. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 18(1), pp. 271-300. http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/698
Research Unit
DOI
PubMed ID
PubMed Central ID
Embedded videos
Additional Links
Type
Journal article
Language
en
Description
© 2023 The Authors. Published by Asian Society for Open and Distance Education. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/698
Series/Report no.
ISSN
1347-9008