Headmasters as Technological Leaders in Implementing ICT in the Schools for the Blind: A Content Analyses on Contextual Literatures of Ghana

Abstract

Schools for the blind in Ghana started teaching and learning of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) a little over a decade ago. Even though the visually impaired students are able to pass their ICT exams each year, headmasters continue to lament over challenges affecting the smooth learning of the subject. The objective of the paper is to explore the role of headmasters as technology leaders in addressing these learning challenges in the schools for the blind. This paper is written as a result of content analyses from contemporary and contextual literatures on the subject matter. It first highlights both the opportunities and challenges of teaching ICT to the visually impaired. Secondly, the review also led to two pressing challenges; inadequacies of headmasters and teachers’ knowledge on Assistive Technology (AT)  and the inadequacies of supply of these technologies. Thirdly, the government of Ghana’s support on ICT education lacks concentration on the schools for the blind. Even though Evidence-Based Teaching and promoting learning without borders through ICT mediated instructions are some of the most effective strategies used in other schools for the blind elsewhere, headmasters and their teachers in Ghana are yet to adopt these approaches in the schools for the blind. As an implication, it is speculated that the role of headmasters in the schools for the blind has not gone beyond the routine monitoring and supervision of school activities  to complex decision making and problem-solving as technological leaders. Hence, this paper highlights both the theoretical and practical gaps for future studies.