The Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER) was a large scale collaborative project aimed at generating new understandings of teacher education before, during and after the point of initial qualification. What globally relevant priorities for teacher education and for the goal of Education for All (EFA) have emerged from MUSTER’s national case studies?

MUSTER draws on research findings from Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi and Trinidad and Tobago. A Synthesis Report on these countries has been produced by the University of Sussex’s Centre for International Education which coordinated the research. A separate book – Changing Patterns of Teacher Education in South Africa – collates analyses from South African MUSTER research.

The authors highlight the challenges posed by Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for teacher education. National targets for enrolment and pupil-teacher ratios for primary schooling are immense and may be the main constraint on universalising enrolment by 2015 and achieving gender equity in schools. In Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi and South Africa – as in many other parts of the developing world – training systems are expensive and not producing enough new teachers to meet projected demand. Too often they fail to reform teaching practices, offer training of limited relevance to the real conditions new teachers face in expanded primary school systems and fail to demonstrate effectiveness. Joined-up policies for primary teacher education linked to achievement of MDG targets and realistically calculated and financed development programmes are conspicuously absent.

Teacher education curricula and learning programmes have been slow to reflect the changing characteristics of trainees. Expansion has meant that academic levels of new entrants may have fallen and in many cases trainees already have experience of teaching as untrained teachers. The risk is that training programmes may proceed on the basis of false assumptions about the capabilities and identities of trainees.

Other key difficulties common to the countries studied include:

• Many teacher training colleges studied have minimal professional links with schools and play little role in school-based curriculum development. Teaching practice, an essential element of the training process, is rarely closely integrated with college-based learning and misses opportunities to link theory and practice in the classroom.
• Key areas of training are often neglected. These include strategies for: large classes, multi-grade teaching, using the mother tongue where this is not the medium of instruction, teaching as a reflective practitioner and reliable assessment.
• Little attention is given to the induction of newly qualified teachers after training. Mentored first appointments are critical to reinforce good practice and minimise attrition rates.
• Training institutions rarely ensure trainees leave with a portfolio of supporting manuals and teaching enrichment materials.
• Under-funding of training and inefficient use of existing resources are major problems. Cost per successful graduate can be high. Working practices may result in high costs but low acquisition of desired skills and competencies.

What needs to happen for teacher educators to retain public support, for EFA and MDG targets to be realised and for new approaches to learning and teaching with developmental significance to be adopted? Among their many recommendations, the authors call for:

• national planning to address questions of teacher supply and demand, quality, curriculum and deployment with clearly specified goals, outcomes, methods, costs and timetables.
• strategic use of untrained teachers, supported by orientation programmes and school-based on-the-job training as a stepping stone for acquiring qualifications.
• resources and mechanisms to enable the embedding of the teacher training process more firmly within schools and in collaboration with experienced teachers.
• colleges to move away from focussing on high cost pre-career residential long course qualifications towards shorter periods of initial training coupled with opportunities for subsequent in-service and continued professional development for those who remain in teaching.
• colleges to become more than initial training institutions and become centres for innovation in learning and teaching, and for professional development and advice.
• induction and continuing professional development for teacher trainers to ensure they have access to new perspectives and to a rich range of learning material.

Source(s):
‘Researching teacher education: new perspectives on practice, performance and policy: synthesis report’ by K. M. Lewin and J. S. Stuart, DFID Education Paper no 49a, March 2003 Full document.
Primary teacher Education in Malawi; Insights into Practice and Policy Kunje D Lewin K Stuart J DFID Education Research Report  49d Full document.
Changing Patterns of Teacher Education in South Africa: Policy, Practice and Prospects. Lewin K.M., Samuel M., Sayed Y, (eds). Heinemann ISBN 0 79620 441 1

Funded by: Department for International Development, UK

id21 Research Highlight: 19 January 2004

Further Information:
Keith Lewin and Janet S. Stuart
Centre for International Education
Sussex Institute, University of Sussex
Falmer,
Brighton,
Sussex
BN1 9QQ
UK

Tel: +44 +1273 678464
Fax: +44 +1273 678568
Contact the contributor: k.m.lewin@sussex.ac.uk

Contact the contributor: janet.stuart33@ntlworld.com

Centre for International Education, Sussex Institute, University of Sussex

Other related links:
Click here for contact details to order a free CD-Rom of MUSTER outputs

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