Gender Diversity and ICT Literacy among Nigerian In-Service Teachers.

Abstract

This study examined the gender disparities that exist in the use of Information and Communication Technology among Nigerian in-service teachers. Five hundred and sixty five (565) in-service teachers (319= 56.46% males and 246= 43.53% females) who enrolled in the sandwich programme in a Nigerian university constituted the sample for the study. The Mean Age and Standard Deviation of the sample were 36.6 and 8.72 respectively. The instrument used for this study was the self-designed ICT Literacy Scale (ILS) with a coefficient of 0.91. Mean and Standard Deviation, t-test, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were utilized for the data analysis. The findings revealed that there gender is a determining factor of in-service teachers‘ overall ICT literacy level, as well as their skill levels in different ICT-oriented tasks. Study outcomes further indicated no significant relationship between gender, in-service teachers‘ ICT literacy level and their monthly income; while a relationship between gender, ICT literacy level and subject discipline was significantly established among in-service teachers. It was recommended amongst other things that technology concepts should be infused into the curriculum of all subjects for teachers to teach and students to learn in order to motivate female teachers‘ interest and involvement in Information and Communication Technology use.

Keywords: Gender, Pre-service teachers, I CT literacy, Nigeria