Evaluating ICT for Education in Africa - Royal Holloway, University of ...

teachers maintaining many external commitments that limit the timeavailable for engaging in participatory research activities.In addition, the presence of teachers during research activities that weresupposedly participatory did not always mean that a genuine participatoryapproach was upheld by all members of the research partnership. As Evertsnoted (15/04/08):„Rather than being fully informed of what was happening theteachers were just “participated” by someone calling theheadmaster the day before and saying “I need to talk with 6teachers tomorrow”. As a result they find it difficult to givetheir perspective because they were just co-opted into theprogramme, they are just subjects, not part of the process.‟Teacher reluctance to engage in lengthy participatory methods within themonitoring and evaluation exercise was also demonstrated throughfrequently alluding to the fact that their participation would be aided byreceiving financial incentives. For many teachers, participating in theresearch process was more about remuneration than empowerment.Teachers in Addis Ababa were familiar with the good practice requirementsof donor programmes and they were therefore often unimpressed at the ideaof participating without any financial incentive.In Malawi this issue was exacerbated by the salary structure of the MoE andall other government ministries, which is dependent upon „travel allowances‟and „incentives‟ to supplement the low basic wage. High-level governmentofficials are the primary beneficiaries from these lucrative „allowances‟ and soit was unsurprising that our arrival in a school was often accompanied by thepalpable expectation from the teachers that this would be a rare opportunityfor them also to gain from the system.In Ethiopia the research team encountered a similar situation. Following achallenging focus group with teachers in Menelik, I enquired of Tilahun195