Practices And Perspectives Of Teaching And Teacher Education In Africa

Teacher education is a known variable that impacts the quality of teaching and schooling, yet while research on practices in teaching and teacher education abound in other contexts, there seems to be no comprehensive reference work on teaching and teacher education in Africa. With Africa and the diaspora boasting rich, diverse political and educational contexts and practices, this gap in knowledge requires that attention be focused on investigating issues that shape the pace, course, and direction of teaching and teacher education in these contexts. Practices and Perspectives of Teaching and Teacher Education in Africa facilitates scholarly discussions among scholars and practitioners about practices, innovations, and future possibilities for educating the next generation of competent students and teachers in Africa. Covering topics such as educational reforms, equity, career progression, and curriculum development, this major reference work is ideal for administrators, industry professionals, researchers, academicians, scholars, practitioners, instructors, and students.

In the drive to achieve universal primary education as one of the Millennium Development Goals, there is an increasing recognition of the urgency of focusing on teacher education to both meet the demand for more than one million qualified teachers required to achieve this goal within sub-Saharan Africa, as well as to combat the sometimes poor quality educational experience reported in the school. Currently, approximately only one third of teachers are qualified to teach. This dearth in qualified teachers also means that secondary and tertiary education need to be improved upon to provide an educated cohort of graduates. This in turn will ensure that the quality of teacher trained and retained within the profession is of a sufficiently high standard to ensure sustainable progress. This volume focuses on the various aspects of teacher education which need to be addressed in order for the wider Millennium Goals to be achieved, but more importantly, so that each African child living within sub-Saharan Africa will have the right to a quality education: ensuring they too experience their right and entitlement as children to reach their full potential - often taken for granted in Western countries – giving African children the necessary tools to build a better future for themselves. Of particular interest to the education researcher and policy maker, this volume’s contributors look at the various issues and challenges around the teacher profession, particularly in relation to resources and practices within sub-Saharan Africa. The contributors examine the issue of building research capacity for educational research within teacher education Colleges and explore the concept of education for sustainable development with the view to improving the development of quality teacher education within the global South. In this volume, research reports are presented highlighting the various challenges within the structure and provision of teacher education within certain national contexts, including assessment and curricula issues, which need to be addressed. This volume goes from the global to the local and examines teacher educator teaching, learning and reflective practice issues within different contexts, as well as exploring alternative pre-service experiences for western teachers who wish to work within the sub-Saharan context as well as some teacher educator exchange programmes between the South and North. Case countries explored include Lesotho, South Africa, Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Madagascar, to mention but a few. Of particular value to the education researcher and policy maker, this book provides a timely resource focusing on an area of neglect, highlighting the central role of the teacher and teacher education towards sustainable development within the sub-Saharan African context.

This book explores the plethora of social-justice issues facing teacher education and development in Africa. Using both theoretical and empirical perspectives, it considers the need for teacher education to be transformational and address conventional pedagogy as well as the rights and duties of all citizens. The edited volume focuses on a wide range of relevant aspects, such as decolonisation, economic models, environmental concerns, as well as multilingual and multicultural aspects of education. Evidence-based chapters cover strategies used to support preservice and in-service teachers on how best to tackle issues of social justice through induction activities, pedagogy and discipline content, involving local communities, and the role of technology, including the use of open educational resources. The principles underlying these strategies are being used in the COVID-19 pandemic and will be equally relevant in the post-COVID-19 world. This book will be of great interest for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of teacher education, African education, educational policy, international education and comparative education.

The preparation of suitably qualified teachers is vital for political, social and economic growth in developing countries. Some major problems have been caused by the enormous growth in primary enrolment and by the need to train more teachers without reducing standards, exacerbated by the fact that in many cases the structure of teacher education is still in its formative stages. However, these problems can lead to innovative options and solutions. Originally published in 1988, this book reports on research and practice in teacher education around the world. It examines, for example, what happens to teacher education at times of great social change or political unrest, as in South Africa or Cyprus, how programmes in, for example, Nigeria or China approach minority education and how teachers are prepared for the teaching of indigenous populations such as the Saskatchevan Indians in Canada. These examples of international teacher education practice are presented within a specific national, regional and cultural context and provide important perspectives on the traditional views of how teachers are and should be prepared and professionally maintained. The book will be of interest to all involved in teacher education, adult education and curriculum design as well as to students of development studies.

This edited volume brings together diverse thinkers and practitioners from the field of teaching and teacher education as it pertains to educational development in South Asia. In this volume, authors draw from their research, practice, and field experiences, showcasing how teaching and teacher education are currently being carried out, understood, theorized, debated, and implemented for the education of children and teachers alike in South Asia. The volume also includes practitioner voices, which are often marginalized in academic discourse. This book acts as a key reference text for academics and practitioners interested in the intersection of education and development in the region, and in particular what it takes to pull off ambitious teaching and teacher education in South Asia.

This book contains the results of research projects carried out in relation to multigrade teaching in Australia and South Africa. Research in multigrade contexts is not commonly reported and rarely in book form. The research results have implications for multigrade teachers, government education personnel, and university teacher educators. The book also contains chapters with practical advice for multigrade teachers, including examples of multigrade teaching used in an Australian seven-grade class (kindergarten to grade 6). Other chapters contain suggestions for practical strategies a multigrade teacher can use to reduce the workload involved in planning for multiple grades. Very little is published in the area of multigrade teaching, yet the number of multigrade schools worldwide is huge. Developed countries still have a significant proportion of multigrade schools (commonly one fifth to one third of all primary schools or classes). Despite decades of centralisation of schools and expansion of transport networks, the number of these schools remains high, mostly in rural areas. Developing countries established multigrade schools in rural areas in order to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education. Yet, specific training to teach a multigrade class remains virtually non-existent in initial teacher education programs worldwide. The value of this book is thus to report specific research carried out in multigrade contexts but also to provide practical help for multigrade teachers. This help is needed as the teachers strive to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goal of a quality education, through helping their students develop the skills and behaviours required for 21st-century learning.

Many teacher education programs globally are undergoing significant changes in response to government policy, imperatives driven by global competitiveness, as well as local conditions. This is particularly relevant in the South African context where teacher education seeks to navigate from the ravages of apartheid education towards addressing the developmental needs of the majority of its citizens. This book records and explores efforts by academic staff members within the Faculty of Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, responding to the demands of a new program in initial teacher education. It brings together diverse views seeking to present a coherent program in the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). It examines how curriculum design unfolds across disciplines in the program, and crucially, the commonalities in the presentation of course material. Lecturers examine the purpose, structure and content of their teaching as they engage with putting democratic policy goals into practice in the core, as well as subject-specific modules of the program.