Los coordinadores y coordinadoras de Centros TICsu importancia como asesores internos para la calidad y el desarrollo del currículo en la Educación Primaria de Andalucía

Abstract

In Spain, as in other countries, new professional roles with new functions are being created and developed within the schools; amongst them. coordinators, counsellors, teaching assistants, monitors, etc. Specifically, the role of ICT Coordinator could be interpreted as a menace to the entity and cohesion of teaching. On the contrary, it represents the establishment of a key role for the introduction and development of Information and Communications Technologies in Andalusian primary schools. Namely, it encourages the improvement and sustainment of quality of teaching. The structure of the present PhD thesis is organized in three main content units. The first part covers the theoretical foundations grounding the research throughout the first six chapters. The first chapter will revise the legislative background related to the field of ITC and its relation to the current normative. To be precise, a literature review will be undertaken analysing some of the most relevant international, national and regional ITC programmes and projects. Finally, an in depth analysis of the fifth call for ICT projects proposals will be made. The second chapter will be dedicated to analyse the background, general aspects and the different models for the integration of ICT in the curriculum. The third chapter will be about teacher training, its background, some general aspects and tendencies within the subject matter. The term teacher trainer will be defined and its varieties analysed. The fourth chapter is aimed at discussing quality in education; some typologies will be identified and the concept Total Quality will be described. Finally, the relation between quality of education and ICT will be addressed. The fifth chapter will be geared at understanding the roles of ICT Coordinator and ICT Team, analysing the current rules and regulations. Likewise, the different intervention strategies will be established. The sixth chapter deals with in-school training, some general aspects will be specified and possible guidelines for an intervention plan will be described. Thereupon, the importance of the ICT coordinator as teacher trainer will be discussed as well as the different training models. The second part of the thesis includes the research design. Therefore, the seventh chapter describes the research methodology undertaken along the different phases of the study. The general framework of the study is described, followed by the rationale and the objectives by means of the category chart. Thereafter, the most relevant, methodological aspects are highlighted, focusing in the case studies and population. The various stages will be established as well as the data collection strategies, data processing and the values of the research. The third part of the thesis addresses the analysis of the information gathered and the processing of the categories. The eighth chapter is geared at dealing with the category origin of the experience, identifying its most relevant aspects. The ninth chapter analyses the social, personal and administrative reality of the participants. The chapter starts with an analysis of the current population of ICT and DIG schools (schools where ICT is used for administrative management and establishing relations with parents) in Andalusia. Next, the population will be studied and finally the case study characteristics will exposed. The tenth chapter will be focused in identifying the concepts, features, functions and types of ICT schools, as well as those aspects related to ICT coordination. The eleventh chapter is about ICT projects repercussions and assessments. The twelfth chapter deals with the category obstacles, where the main obstacles faced by the teachers will be identified as they develop the ICT projects. The thirteenth chapter is about the elements supporting and facilitating the introduction of ICT projects in the schools. The fourteenth chapter deals with the curricular inclusion of ICT in the cases studied; Where there will be a description of the processes that schools have undertaken to develop ICT projects. The last chapter of the research will be exclusively aimed at analysing the final reflections and implications of the study, which are conjointly derived from both the analysis of the case studies and the study of the population.