The usefulness of technology integration in education is evident in its increasing adoption in educational systems worldwide. Despite the effective attainment of technology integration in many schools, it is still considered a complex educational change process (Tondeur, Van Braak, Ertmer, & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2017). Notwithstanding the promise technology holds in improving learning outcomes in primary education (Mosley, 2013), studies show that most teachers, considered agents of change, have yet to adopt it meaningfully to support instruction. How to support teachers to accept change and constructively teach with technology remains essential research and a practice concern that needs continual addressing (Voogt, Knezek, Christensen, & Lai, 2018).

Like most countries, Ghana acknowledges the importance of Information and communication technology (ICT) to develop human resources for today’s information society and knowledge economy (Buabeng-Andoh & Yidana, 2015). Despite the development of the national policies on ICT in education first developed in 2003, technology education embedded in curriculum reforms and investments in technological infrastructure in schools, teachers grapple with policy directives mandating technology use for instruction. These difficulties result in teachers’ minimal uptake of technology in the classroom and mirror no extensive practices of sustainable integration in pre-tertiary schools (Agyei, 2013; Mereku et al., 2009). For technology integration to achieve its desired promise of enhancing instruction and to support students’ learning outcomes in Ghanaian schools, a better understanding of factors impacting effective uptake by teachers is needed. The study, therefore, addresses the research question: What influential factors do stakeholders perceive as significant to teachers’ technology integration in Ghanaian primary schools?

To address this significant problem and to shape discussion of the study’s findings, the paper adopts Ertmer’s (1999) conceptual framework of barriers to change. This conceptual framework categorises barriers to technology integration into extrinsic and intrinsic factors labelled as first-order and second-order barriers, respectively. First-order barriers refer to logistical challenges external to teachers over which they have limited control but are easy to measure and relatively easy to eliminate (Ertmer, 1999). First-order barriers emanate from societal, institutional and school conditions and are barriers associated with educational ICT policy, school leadership, curriculum, technological infrastructure, technical support, and professional development (Kafyulilo, Fisser, & Voogt, 2016; Ertmer, 1999). Fundamental barriers that are less tangible and internal to individual teacher characteristics are described as second-order barriers. These internal teacher-related factors include teacher dispositions, skills, beliefs, orientations, and technology values in teaching and learning. In addition, teachers’ openness to change and resistance to innovations are internal factors that significantly influence teachers’ decisions to integrate technology (Ertmer, Ottenbreit-Leftwich, Sadik, Sendurur, & Sendurur, 2012).

The study hinges on an exploratory and interpretive qualitative research design to investigate the perceptions of key educational actors’ leaders about the factors that influence teachers’ uptake of integration in Ghanaian primary schools. Because employing multiple sources of evidence allows researchers to address wide-ranging issues and develop “converging lines of inquiry” (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2018), both semi-structured telephone interviews and open-ended questions from multiple participants formed the primary data sources for the study. The use of telephone interviewing is not new to educational technology research because it has been used in the past to investigate teachers’ technology professional development. For instance, Tondeur, Forkosh-Baruch, Prestridge, Albion, and Edirisinghe (2016), in the study ‘Preparing beginning teachers for technology integration in education: Ready for take-off?’ conducted telephone interviews with 16 beginning teachers to investigate the relationship between their usage of ICT in teaching and their pre-service ICT training experiences in Belgium. Further, in using the direct open-ended self-reporting method, participants were also asked to freely describe in a written form their experiences and perspectives on the subject of investigation. Twenty teachers, five headteachers, and five district education officials were purposely selected through the snowballing technique across various schools in two educational districts in Ghana to participate in the study. The study’s thematic analysis followed Miles, Huberman, and Saldaña (2014) concurrent and iterative data analysis matrix. Miles and colleague’s analysis technique involve three streams of analytic activities that comprise 1. data condensation, 2. data display, and 3. conclusion drawing/verification. In particular, the study’s qualitative analysis path followed the processes of data recording and transcription and the categorisation of patterns and themes that emerged from the aggregated data set (telephone interviews and open-ended questions). Two levels of coding were undertaken with the aid of NVivo 12. First, data were inductively coded close to participants responses to identify the various factors of influence on teachers’ technology adoption. Second, the influencing factors identified from the initial coding phase were further categorised based on Ertmer’s (1999) conceptual framework of first-order and second-order barriers to change. Specifically, the emergent themes from the first level coding were grouped in terms of how they fit into the definition of Ertmer’s first and second-order barriers conceptual framework.

Using Ertmer’s (1999) first-and second-order barriers to change to discuss findings, the results highlight six critical factors of influences that affect teachers use of technology in classrooms. First, “first-order” barriers external to teachers, such as limited technological resources, inadequate technology leadership, and professional development opportunities, were identified as shaping teachers’ decisions to integrate technology. Second, “second-order” barriers intrinsic to teachers and comprised teachers’ limited technology know-how, misconceptions and negative attitude towards technology use, and learners’ low familiarity with technology tools were found to affect teachers’ motivation for technology. The present study results support the claim that there is a reciprocal relationship between first-order and second-order barriers (Sherman & Howard, 2012). The current findings strongly imply that the second-order barriers relating to teachers’ attitudes, knowledge and skills take it source from the first-order barriers, which seemed to be more impactful and determine teachers’ use of technology in the Ghanaian context. It is argued in some quarters, especially in the USA and some European countries, that first-order barriers have significantly been reduced, and so the focus should be on the second-order barriers and how they could be abridged (Ertmer et al., 2012; Tondeur et al., 2017). Conversely, the present study findings suggest that first-order barriers continue to matter in the Ghanaian context and are grave inhibitors that are considered to influence second-order barriers regarding teachers’ beliefs, interest, and disposition towards teaching technology. While the interplay of first-order and second-order barriers influence teachers’ use of technology, claims of participants about the severity of the impact of first-order obstacles imply that school leaders and educational policymakers should concentrate more on alleviating the effects of first-order barriers, with increased access to technological resources and professional development to improve teachers’ uptake of technology for instruction, particularly in the Ghanaian primary school context.

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