Abstract:
Today’s children are growing up in a rapidly changing digital age that is different from that of their parents and grandparents with variety of technologies all around their homes and schools. One of the Kenyan national goals of education is to promote technological and industrial needs for national development. One guiding principles of Kenyan Basic Education Act 2013 is that education should promote innovativeness, inventiveness creativity, technology transfer and an entrepreneurial culture among learners. However, report from Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) from the ministry of education (Kisumu Central Sub-County) shows a low level of integration of digital technologies in early years of education. The purpose of this study therefore was to investigate the influence of teacher preparedness on integration of digital technologies in early years’ of education in Kenya. The study objective was to establish the influence of teachers’ status of digital literacy on integration of digital technologies in early years of education. The study adopted Concurrent triangulation design within the mixed method approach. The study was anchored on Davis (1986) Technology Acceptance Model and Preparedness Theory by Seligman (1971). The study targeted 345 teachers from Kisumu Central Sub-County. The study adopted saturated sampling to sample preschool and standard two teachers, stratified random sampling to sample head teachers and standard three teachers and purposive sampling to sample standard one teacher. The sample size comprised of 90 preschool teachers, 75 grade one teachers, 75 grade two teachers, 23 grade three teachers and 9 head teachers. The data collection instruments were structured questionnaires, interview schedules and focus group discussion. Validity was ensured by expert judgment from university supervisors. Cronbach Alpha was used establish reliability and the subscales met the recommended threshold. Trustworthiness of qualitative data was ensured by use of multiple sources of data. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and linear regression were used to analyze quantitative data. The Qualitative data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis Approach. The study findings showed a significant (n=202; r =.711; p < 0.05) highly positive correlation between status of digital literacy and integration of digital technologies. The teachers’ status of digital literacy was also found to be high. The study recommended that the ministry of education should enhance their
