A Participatory Approach to the Formulation of an Information and Communication Technology Policy: A Q-Methodology Case Study

This study focuses on policymakers and the intricacies and subtleties surrounding the relationship between policy formulation and policy in practice. It would seem that policymakers assumed that by placing computers in school, all would bode well and the implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) would unfold naturally. Present educational practice has culminated in a mismatch between what is desired by school administrators, as policymakers and what is needed by teachers as policy implementers. This paper focuses on an innovative approach to the formulation of an ICT policy for a school, using Q-methodology case study. The findings of this study indicate that though teachers appropriate different meanings to policy, they are important actors in education and deserve the right to be policy decision makers.