Smart school project in Iran: Potentials and barriers

The study was aimed at identifying the potentials of and barriers to the Smart School Project (SSP). Through the use of a mixed methods design, data were garnered from 746 school teachers, principals, and information technology experts, semi-structured interviews with 21 key informants and two researcher-designed questionnaires on the potentials of and barriers to SSP. The qualitative data were analyzed using three-stage coding and quantitative data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis. The findings from the three data collection tools indicate 8 potentials and 9 barriers. SSP potentials include improving teachers’, principals’, and students’ knowledge, skills and attitudes toward using information and communication technology (ICT), access to quality e-content, increasing school facilities, potentials available in the social environment, developing curriculum beyond schools, student participation in the learning process, enhancing school and parent relationship, and social supports and enacted laws. Further, SSP development barriers are comprised of 9 themes including teachers’, principals’ and students’ lack of access to ICT and using it, vagueness in policies, missions, and goals of ICT integration into school curriculum, lack of support system and supervision, lack of specialized training for principals and teachers, barriers concerned with the nature of ICT, incompatibility of curriculum structure with ICT, structural and organizational barriers, cultural conditions and barriers, and lack of space and equipment.