Empowering teachers: Enhancing Business Studies teachers' technology integration skills through technology peer mentoring

Abstract

Schools worldwide are continually seeking out various strategies to improve teachers' skills in integrating technology. One strategy that some schools adopt to enhance teachers' technology integration skills is technology peer mentoring. This qualitative study investigates how technology peer mentoring is used to enhance the technology integration skills of business studies teachers in selected schools in South Africa. Interpretivism was adopted as the research paradigm, and an exploratory case study was used as the research design for this study. Purposive sampling was used to select six business studies teachers from six secondary schools located in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected through semi-structured interviews. The study revealed that business studies teachers benefited immensely from their colleagues in the fields of Computer Application Technology and Information Technology during technology peer mentoring. This is because IT and CAT teachers possess both pedagogical and technological knowledge, which makes it easier for them to mentor business studies teachers in integrating technology into their instructional practices. The study concluded that technology peer mentoring helps enhance teachers' technology integration skills. Therefore, the study recommends that technology peer mentoring be adopted in South African schools as part of the strategies to enhance teachers' technology integration skills.