Distance Education Framework for a Developing Country

What is it about?

If education is to be more appropriately available to large sectors of the world’s population, then rethinking Distance Education (DE) as a necessity rather than an option is imperative, particularly in developing countries. Although the modern concepts of education are transferable from developed to developing countries, it is not always possible to determine the associated challenges within a different context. However, lessons can be learned from effective practices in countries who have developed good models of DE provision. This paper reports on part of a study conducted to collate the policies and practices of two successful DE providers of the developed world with those of a provider in Bangladesh in order to inform a culturally appropriate DE framework for a developing country. This paper also describes an innovative theoretical model, ‘Adapting Structuration Theory In Distance Education (ASTIDE)’, conceptualised as part of a broader study, to address the underlying issues and to generate propositions for the framework.

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Why is it important?

The design and development of distance education is more complex than the technological requirements, as community perceptions, support structures, pedagogy and available DE policies and their practices, also need to be considered. The study described in this paper investigated DE systems created in Australia and the UK, along with the system in Bagladesh and based on the findings, proposed a framework to inform the possible future development of the operational structure at BOU. As Giddens (1984) explains, Adaptation to nature will shape a culture’s technology and derivatively its social and ideological components. Yet adaptation to other cultures may shape society and ideology, which in turn act upon technology and determine its future course. The total result of the adaptive process is the production of an organized cultural whole, an integrated technology, society, and ideology (p. 235). Therefore, it is important for developing countries like Bangladesh, to have an organized culturally appropriate DE framework in order to provide educational opportunities and to positively impact on socio-economic development. This framework provides a sociological approach for designing DE for developing countries and thus, represents a major contribution to the development of an innovative and viable education model, to assist communities to more effectively deal with 21st century issues.

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