Digitalisation and Educational Transformation: An Ethnographic Study of Urban Ghanaian Classrooms

This ethnographic study investigates the implementation of digital technologies in urban Ghanaian secondary schools, critically examining the divergence between national ICT policy objectives and classroom realities. Conducted from 2023 to 2025, the research utilised sustained participant observation and in-depth interviews with teachers and pupils across three schools in Accra and Kumasi. It analyses how digital tools are adopted, adapted, and resisted within constrained infrastructural and pedagogical contexts. The findings reveal a state of ‘digital pragmatism’. Although the government’s 2021-2025 ICT in Education policy increased hardware provision, integration remained superficial. Educators creatively repurposed basic technologies, such as smartphones and projectors, to bolster established, teacher-centred methods rather than enabling pupil-led, transformative learning. Persistent challenges included erratic electricity, uneven educator digital literacy, and a curricular emphasis on high-stakes examination preparation. The study contends that without addressing these foundational infrastructural and pedagogical constraints, digitalisation risks exacerbating, rather than alleviating, educational inequalities. Its contribution lies in providing a grounded, African-centred perspective that centres local agency and contextual realities over imported technological solutionism. The study concludes that meaningful integration requires co-designed strategies which align technology with sustained professional development and curricular reform.