Developing a systemic approach to teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa: emerging lessons from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda

Abstract

While many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are on track for meeting the Education for All targets, there is a growing recognition of the need to improve the quality of basic education and that a focus on pedagogy and its training implications needs to be at the heart of this commitment. By drawing on three East African countries, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, which are at different stages of development with regard to the reforming of teacher education, this paper explores the challenges and the lessons learned from each of the countries with regard to the development and strengthening of pre- and in-service training. The tension between quality, breadth and cost-effectiveness is explored together with a broader discussion of key principles to be taken into account when enhancing teacher education in the region as a whole.

Keywords:

• pre-service and in-service training
• teacher education reform
• sub-Saharan Africa
• Education for All
• basic education
• quality education

Acknowledgements

Projects cited in this paper were funded by the Department for International Development and UNICEF. We are grateful to both, but the views expressed are those of the authors. We are also grateful to the two anonymous referees for their constructive feedback.

Notes

1. A computerized systematic observation was used to code teaching behaviours capturing both frequency and duration. The coding of the data primarily focused on The Initiation–Response–Feedback structure adapted from the work of Sinclair and Coulthard (1992) by gathering data on the types of teacher questions, whether questions were answered (and by whom) and the types of follow-up given in response to answers.