College Administrative Support in Integration of Adaptive Technology for Visually Impaired Student Teachers in Primary Teacher Training Colleges: The Kenyan Experience

Abstract

Administrative support is key in inclusive education and more so in the integration of adaptive technology for visually impaired (VI) student teachers. Integration of adaptive technology improves the quality of education, removes learning barriers and ensures that the visually impaired student teachers graduate as skilled, confident and competent primary school teachers. This study assessed the college administration’s support in the integration of adaptive technology for visually impaired student teachers. The study was guided by the diffusion of innovation theory by Rogers which gives a basis for the adoption of innovations in institutions and other settings. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study population included administrators and tutors in three primary teachers training colleges which admit student teachers with visual impairment in Kenya. The purposive sampling technique was used to select three deans of the curriculum while simple random sampling was used to select nine heads of departments and 93 tutors making a sample of 105 respondents. Data collection instruments were questionnaires and interview schedules. Descriptive statistics like frequencies and percentages were used to analyze the quantitative data. A qualitative procedure was applied to information from interviews where respondents’ answers were presented in words and interpretations made. The findings of this study revealed that the college administration’s support for the integration of adaptive technology was low. The recommendation made was that the college administration of public primary TTCs should fully support the integration of adaptive technology for VI student teachers in the primary TTCs by availing resources and training tutors on the integration of adaptive technology.