ENHANCING PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIY AND ETHICS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY LITERACY AMONG NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY ARABIC LECTURERS

This study is aimed at investigating the impact of technology literacy on Arabic lecturers’ professional identity, ethics, and instructional effectiveness at Nigerian universities. It assesses the lecturers’ overall level of technology literacy and investigates whether it influences their ethical teaching practices as well as the educational technology-related challenges that may hinder effective instruction on Arabic language at the university level. The study employs a descriptive survey design and uses a stratified random sampling technique in the distribution of 200 questionnaires, with emphasis on lecturers across Nigeria's six geopolitical zones. Results reveal that the overall level of technology literacy among the study population is positive (M = 3.09), thus influencing professional identity (M = 3.20) and ethical behavior (M = 3.15). The results also show that there are a number of problems facing the Arabic lecturers, including limited access to resources, poor internet connectivity, insufficient training, and reluctance on the part of the lecturers themselves towards the use of digital models. Additionally, there appears to be a statistically significant difference between low-experienced and high-experienced lecturers (p = 0.002), with younger lecturers possessing higher technology literacy. In summary, technology literacy has profound impacts on teaching quality and ethics and is likely to be hindered by infrastructural and pedagogical problems that need to be addressed en masse. The study, therefore, recommends the development of more advanced digital infrastructure, continuous teacher training, and the integration of digital literacy into teacher education courses at the Nigerian universities.