Validation of Barriers to the Implementation of Educational Technology in Education
Keywords:
Educational Technology, Geography Education, Technology Integration Barriers, Iraqi Education SystemAbstract
Purpose: The present study aimed to validate the human and environmental barriers affecting the implementation of educational technology in geography education within the Iraqi school system.
Methods and Materials: This applied study employed a descriptive survey design. The statistical population consisted of 3,045 geography teachers and subject group leaders across Iraq, from which a sample of 384 participants was selected using the Krejcie and Morgan sampling table and cluster quota sampling method. Data were collected using a researcher-developed questionnaire including 67 items measured on a five-point Likert scale. Face and content validity were confirmed by experts and respondents, and reliability was established through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.98). Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate the measurement model, assess construct validity, and examine the structural relationships among latent variables representing human and environmental barriers.
Findings: Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the proposed two-dimensional model of educational technology barriers demonstrated satisfactory goodness-of-fit indices. Human barriers significantly explained teacher, managerial, and student-related dimensions, while environmental barriers significantly predicted hardware–software and organizational constraints. All standardized factor loadings exceeded acceptable thresholds, composite reliability and average variance extracted values confirmed convergent validity, and structural path coefficients were statistically significant (p < .05). The results verified that both higher-order constructs adequately represented the multidimensional structure of barriers to educational technology implementation.
Conclusion: The findings demonstrate that successful implementation of educational technology depends on the simultaneous management of human readiness and environmental conditions. Psychological resistance, limited professional competencies, organizational culture, infrastructural limitations, and institutional policies collectively influence technology adoption. The validated model provides an empirical framework for educational policymakers and administrators to design systematic interventions addressing both individual and structural barriers to technology integration in teaching and learning environments.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Ahmed Ali Abed Abed (Author); Badri Shahtalebi; Hayder Hatem Falih Al Ijrish, Nasrolah Ghashghaeizadeh (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
