The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the need for teachers to be able to effectively use technology in teaching. The call for self-isolation and on-line teaching has made it evident that as well as understanding how to access resources for technology, teachers also need to know how to use technology effectively in teaching. Bangladesh has a strong policy commitment to developing ICT skills in all areas and acknowledges that education is a key basis for developing such skills. However, existing research and anecdotal evidence indicate that while some teachers have rudimentary skills in locating and using online teaching resources, many still do not and that there are numerous and significant problems in resourcing the use of technology, especially in rural contexts.  The current pan-epidemic crisis has added new and urgent dimensions to the need for teachers who are comfortable and competent in using and adapting technology.  In many western countries, education has been able to continue relatively uninterrupted on-line because teachers are well-trained in using technology and have access to effective communicative platforms and well-developed  pedagogical resources. This is not yet the situation in Bangladesh.

Thus this study aims to explore following research questions:

How does current teacher training equip Bangladeshi teachers to use technology effectively in their teaching?

What technology skills do teachers need to meet the needs of Bangladesh in the current era?

The  knowledge and skills needed to create successful teachers is a continuously important global research issue. Darling- Hammond & Bransford (2007) proposed that education programs preparing teachers for the 21^st century teacher should focus where teacher will acquire knowledge of learners and their development in social contexts, knowledge of subject matter and curriculum goals and knowledge of teaching. Shulman (1986) proposed a framework for teacher development stating that a teacher needs to have pedagogical and content knowledge. With the advent of technology and its rapid spread, technological knowledge becomes one of the important skills for various professionals including teachers. Mishra and Koehler (2006),thus, modified the Shulman’s Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) model and added technology. The model is  now known as Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) model and is still regarded an important model for teacher development.

Numerous research studies address the need for integration of technology into teacher training. UNESCO (2002), for example, stated that ‘’designing and implementing successful ICT-enabled teacher education programmes is the key to fundamental, wide-ranging educational reforms (p.4)’’. UNESCO (2002) stressed that Pre-Service and In-Service teachers’ basic ICT skills and competencies are essential if the country wants to take the maximum benefit of the inclusion of ICT in the education system. Various recent researches (e.g. Krutka, Heath, & Willet, 2019, Watson, Yu, Alamri, & Watson, 2020) also investigated different aspects of integrating technology in teacher education including identifying enablers and barriers to integrating technology, teachers’ attitude towards technology, teacher education design, teachers’ anxiety and confidence in using technology. 

In Bangladesh, The Education Policy (2010) emphasises the use of technology in every aspect of education. Moreover, a number of initiatives have been taken to train and develop secondary teachers professionally (Al Amin & Greenwood, 2018). Projects like English in Action, Teaching Quality Improvement, English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP) provide training to the existing teachers (Eyres, Power, McCormick, 2018; Shohel & Banks, 2012), but  none are concerned with researching or developing a strong pre-service teacher education that will prepare technology-proficient future teachers to promote 21^st century learning.

Thus, it is essential to investigate how existing teacher training prepares Bangladeshi teachers to teach with technology and what knowledge and skills Bangladeshi teachers need in order to be technology proficient teachers.

This study, still in progress, is an explanatory sequential mixed methods research (Cresswell, 2012). Creswell (2012) stated that in an explanatory sequential mixed methods design quantitative data is collected first followed by the qualitative data. The first phase of this study is quantitative in nature. A questionnaire based survey is designed to carried out among teachers who are in currently studying in or have just finished a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed) or Master of Education (M.Ed) program. The survey is expected to elicit Likert scale responses to questions about participants’ familiarity with technological tools and programs, their attitudes towards technology, their ability to adapt existing resources, their confidence in using them and their perceptions of any existing difficulties. In addition to the Likert scale responses, in the questionnaire there are spaces for short explanatory comments by participants. The data collected in this stage will be analysed through descriptive and interpretive statistics (De Vaus, 2013), together with collation of key themes developed from the participants’ comments. The second phase is qualitative that involves interviewing a purposively selected group of teacher trainers, practicing teachers, curriculum developers and policy makers. Participants will be engaged in semi-structured interviews and the aim of this stage is to find out participants’ views about the technological knowledge and skills that are important in the current context and in the predictable future. They will also elicit discussion of current and expected future impediments and of practical strategies to overcome them. The data collected will be sorted and analysed utilising the theme-based strategies of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis ( Smith, Flowers & Osborn, 2009 ). In discussion of the findings policy documents and course related documents will be analysed and reference will be made to the relevant research literature that is currently emerging in the wake of Covid-19.

The result of this study is expected to contribute to the pre-service and in-service teacher education and how these training will prepare future teachers to teach in a technology- integrated environment in Bangladesh by exploring various stakeholders’ views. The importance of technology-integrated teaching is also important in times of crisis. For example, because of the Coronavirus most of the educational institutions around the world have now adopted remote teaching for which teachers’ knowledge of information and communication technology is one of prerequisites. This study will also explore the effectiveness and drawbacks of the existing teacher education program in Bangladesh. It will also evolve suggestions for developing pre-service teacher education, with attention to training processes and qualifications Furthermore, it will contribute to the country’s overall goal of quality education. Although this study is investigating Bangladesh context, it will be relevant to other developing and some of the European nations that have similar contexts. There is now global urgency to find ways to facilitate education digitally and many journals are putting out calls for contributions to special issues on this subject. The findings of this study will signal barriers and enablers of integrating technology in teacher education and so can contribute to other countries’ research into means of designing or revising teacher training programs.

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