Proceedings of The 5th World Conference on Research in Education
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Inequality in education and the implications of e-teaching – How the lack of technological resources affects the perception of teaching
Prof. Nitza Davidovitch, Dr. Eyal Eckhaus
ABSTRACT:
Equality and inequality in the field of education is an issue of concern that occupies leaders within the various parts of the educational system. Following the Covid-19 crisis, the academic system transitioned to e-learning. This generated questions involving the application of this type of teaching to students who lack the suitable technological resources. The socioeconomic issue has been found to affect the application of e-teaching in the context of disadvantaged population groups, but also in developing countries that are contending with technological deficiencies.
The purpose of the study was to examine the perception of e-teaching among students who lack appropriate resources for e-learning, as well as in cases of technological deficiencies in the system. Completed questionnaires exploring the challenges involved in e-teaching were collected from 1,963 participants during the Covid-19 pandemic. We employed mixed methods research that combines qualitative and quantitative methods, and present an empirical model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was employed to assess model fit.
Results show that students perceive the lack of technological resources and failures linked to the technological infrastructure as having a direct detrimental effect on the quality of teaching. Technology is mostly perceived as a facilitating element that gives disadvantaged population groups access to channels that were previously less accessible to them. This is the first study to prove that in the period studied the situation has been reversed, and the very essentialness of technology for the purpose of teaching has further enhanced existing inequalities.
keywords: covid-19,digital teaching, education, equality and inequality, developing countries.