School in a Box in Low Resource Primary School in Mozambique: Practical Application of Zone of Proximal Development in Teacher Training with Mobile Technology

The new Sustainable Development Goals call for quality education for all. This study aims to examine the role of mobile educational technology, through the School in a Box intervention, particularly in supporting teachers skills in achieving quality education, in the context of a public primary school in Mozambique. Quality education is examined specifically in relation to participative pedagogical practices designed to contextualise learning in locally relevant meaning, and providing children with the skills of learning how to learn. Additionally it is examined in the context of teacher professional development and creating peer support structures within the teaching community enabling teachers to be at the forefront of initiatives introducing mobile educational technology in low resource learning environments in Sub Saharan Africa. This paper sets the context for the use of the School in a Box tool in the classroom and in teacher professional development against the theoretical framework of Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. The study aims to furthermore examine how teachers can be enabled to appropriate use of the technology to the local environment and curriculum needs. KeywoRDS Africa, iPad, Low-Resource Primary Classroom, Mobile, Mozambique, School in a Box, Solar, Teacher Continued Professional Development, Teacher Training, Vygotsky, Zone of Proximal Development