Teachers' Perspectives of the Drivers and Constraints of ICT Integration into Mathematics Education: A Study of Private Secondary Schools in Five Cities in the Niger Delta

This study reports on teachers' perspectives of the drivers and constraints of ICT integration into Mathematics Education in 50 private secondary schools in five cities in the Niger Delta region. The study employed a descriptive survey design to obtain the data. The sample or respondents for the study were two hundred mathematics teachers who were drawn through a random sampling technique. The sample represents four Mathematics teachers per school. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire, which was administered and retrieved by research assistants. The instrument was validated for content and construct. The reliability coefficient was obtained using Cronbach's alpha. The study employed the use of descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation in analysing the data. From the results, it was discovered that the major drivers of computer integration into the teaching and learning of mathematics were changes in pedagogical practices, school, and national policy to meet global standards, ease of teachers' jobs and saved time due to students' enrolment and overcrowded classrooms, and the need to promote a student-centred approach to learning through the digital classroom. It was also revealed that mathematics teachers in private secondary schools used ICT, although superficially, in the teaching and learning of mathematics. It was also revealed that ICT contributed insignificantly to the teaching and learning of the subject due to the daunting impediments, primarily, lack of access, lack of support by management to access Internet services, lack of power supply, theft and vandalization, and inadequate training and skills of teachers to use ICT, which were all major constraints. Based on the findings, it was recommended that teachers be encouraged to use ICT by training them for ICT literacy and competency, and government should create an enabling environment that would reduce anti-social vices and the cost of access to Internet services.