Clinging to the managerial approach in implementing teacher education ‘reform’ tasks in ethiopia

Year 2007, Volume: 3 Issue: 3, 20 - 42, 01.12.2007

Kedir Assefa Tessema

Abstract

In this paper, the author argues that the pre-service secondary teacher education ‘paradigm shift’ or ‘system overhaul’ that has been implemented during the 20032005 time period in Ethiopia reflects the pursuit of pathways which the author refers to as a managerial approach. Grounded mainly on personal narratives of a key selfnarrator and views of other faculty reform performers, the author brings to surface the ideology upheld by central reform planners and administrators. The author identifies four reform tasks to demonstrate the consistency in the paths pursued to effect policies of central priorities. These reform tasks which mainly concern changes in curriculum and instruction were planned and have been effected in managerial spaces and tools. The author further argues that, in effect, if not in intent, the managerial approach has had a sidelining effect because the larger practitioners, professional associations, communities, student teachers, and private popular media have been given little or no opportunities for participation. According to the author, the approach has also reduced pedagogical concerns and values to an adjunct or secondary position

Keywords

managerial approach, reform, teacher education, practicum

References

• Alemaya University (Faculty Archive) (October 2005) The Second National Teacher
• Education Workshop Proceeding. A faculty document retrieved from archive. Anderson, G., Herr, K., & Nihlen, A. S. (1994) Studying Your Own School: An Educator’s CA: Corwin Press.
• Ashton, D. N. & Green F. (1996) Education, Training and the Global Economy.
• Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. Ball, S. (1994) Education Reform. Buckingham: Open University Press.
• Bell, L. A. (1996) In danger of winning: consciousness raising strategies for empowering girls in the United States. Women’s Studies International Forum, (4):419-27
• Blackmore, J. (1997) The gendering of skill and vocationalism in twentieth–century
• Australian education, in A. H. Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown & A. S. Wells (Eds.) Education: Culture, Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. –239. Bonal, X. (2002) The World Bank global education policy and the Post-Washington
• Consensus International Studies in the Sociology of Education, 12/1. Connelly, F.M. & Clandinin, D.J. (1999) Narrative Inquiry, in J.P. Keeves & G.
• Lakomiski (Eds.) Issues in Educational Research. Amsterdam: Pergamon, pp. Davies, G. (1997) Implications, consequences and futures, in D. Davis, G.B. Sullivan
• & A. Yeatman ( Eds ) The New Contractualism? Melbourne: Macmillan: pp. 224 – Darling-Hammond, L. 1997. Restructuring Schools for Student Success, in A. H. Halsey, H.
• Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 332–337. Drucker, P. (1974) Management. London: Butterworth Heinemann.
• Enteman, W. (1993) Managerialism: The Emergence of a New Ideology. Wisconsin:
• The University of Wisconsin press. Fullan, M. (1993) Change Forces: Probing the Depths of Educational Reform.
• London: The Falmer Press. Fuller, B. (1991) Growing–up Modern: the Western State Builds Third–World
• Schools. New York: Routledge. Gee, J., Hull, G. & Lankshear, C. (1996) The New Work Order: Behind the Language of the New Capitalism. St. Leonards: Allen and Unwin.
• Gewirtz, S. & Ball, S. (2000) From ‘welfarism’ to ‘new managerialism’: shifting discourses of school headship in the education marketplace Discourse, 21/ 3, pp. 253 –268.
• Giroux, H. (2000) Stealing innocence: corporate culture’s war on children. New York: Palgrave.
• Goodlad, J. (1991) Why we need a complete redesign of teacher education
• Educational Leadership, 49/3, pp. 4-10. Goodson, I. (1992) Studying teachers lives. London: Routledge.
• Hargreaves, A. (1994) Changing Teachers, Changing Times. New York: Teachers College Press.
• Hargreaves, A. (1997) Restructuring restructuring: postmodernists and the prospects for educational change, in A. H. Halsey, H. Lauder, P. Brown & A. S. Wells
• (Eds.) Education: Culture, Economy and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 338–353). Liston, D. & Zeichner, K. (1991) Teacher Education and the Social Conditions of
• Schooling. New York: Routledge. Little, J. (1993) Teachers professional development in a climate of educational reform.Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 15/2: pp.129-51.
• Maraw, Z., Birara G., Nardos, A. & Mekwanit K.( 2000) Secondary teacher education in Ethiopia an overview, in D. Bridges & Marew Z. (Eds. ) Secondary Teacher
• Education in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa: The British Council in Association with Addis Ababa University, pp. 7–23. Mekuanint, K.( 2000 ) The policy and practice of pre–service secondary teacher education in Ethiopia: 1974- 1999, in D. Bridges & Marew Z. (Eds. )
• Secondary Teacher Education in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa: The British Council in Association with Addis Ababa University, pp.24-44. Ministry of Education. (1999) Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia’s Education
• Sector Development Program: Action Plan. Official working document. Addis Ababa Ministry of Education. (2003) A National Curriculum Guideline for Pre-service
• Teacher Education Programmes Official working document, Addis Ababa: Ministry of Education. Ministry of Education (November 2002) A National Framework for Teacher
• Education System Overhaul, Unpublished policy document, Addis Ababa: Ministry of Education.. Pascal, P. (1990) Managing on the Edge. New York: Touchstone.
• Pollit, C. (1990) Managerialism and the Public Services: The Anglo–American
• Experience . Oxford: Basil Blackwell. O’Brien, P. & Down, B. (2002) What are teachers saying about new managerialism?
• Journal of Educational Inquiry, 3/1, (http: //www literacy–unisa– edu.au/jee/papers/ JEE vol 3 no 1 / paper 7.polf. Robertson, S. (2000) A class act: change teachers work, the state, and globalizations.
• London: The Falmer Press. Samoff, J. (1999) Institutionalizing International Influence, in Robert F. A. & Carl
• T. (Eds.) Comparative Education: the dialectic of the global and the local London: Roman & Littlefield Publisher, Inc, pp.51- 87. Sarson, S. (1990) The Predictable Failure of Educational Reform. San Francisco: CA, Josse—Boss.
• Shacklock, G. (1992) Pain, care and cutting corners: a socially critical ethnographic work story account of teaching in one school Teaching and Teachers Work, /3, pp.1-8.
• Schlechty, P. (1990) Reform in Teacher Education. Washington DC: American
• Association of Colleges of Education. Sinclair, A. (1996) Leadership in administration rediscovering a lost discourse, in P.
• Weller & G. Davies (Eds.) New Ideas, Better Government. St. Leonards:Allen and Unwin, pp. Smyth, J. (2001) Critical Politics of Teachers’ Work: An Australian Perspective. New
• York: Peter Lang Publishing. Taylor, D. & Teddlie, C. (1992) Restructuring and the classroom: a view from a reform district, A paper presented at the annual meeting of the American
• Educational Research Association, San Francisco. Tekeste, N. (1990) The Crisis of Ethiopian Education: Some Implications for Nation
• Building, Uppsala Reports on Education 29, Department of Education,Uppsala University. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. (1994) Training and Education Policy.
• Official policy document, Addis Ababa. UNESCO (2003) Gender and Education: The Leap to Equality (EFA Global monitoring
• Report 200 3/ 4). Paris: UNESCO Publishing. Vallas, S. (1990) The concept of skill: a critical review Work and Occupations, /4, pp. 379-398.
• Waff, D. (1994) Girl talk: creating community through social exchange, in Michael F.
• (ed) Chartering Urban School Reform, New York; Teachers Press College