Teacher education at a distance: impact on development in the community

The benefits of teaching teachers by distance education in Guyana, Uganda and Nigeria

By: Binns F & Wrightson T
Published by: Department of International Development (DFID), 2006
Via: Eldis

Does training teachers by distance education (DE) assist development in the wider community? Experiences of using DE to train teacher in Guyana, Uganda and Nigeria inform this report, which aims to:

• improve understanding of how the DE infrastructure contributes to the community inside and outside school
• show how training teachers using DE methodologies impact both their community and their role in it
• compare the impact of teacher education by DE in the three countries and at different stages of development and scale.

The study establishes several positive impacts of teacher training on the local communities. Recommendations for harnessing this potential call for a balanced approach, which recognises that the point of equilibrium is context and audience specific. Suggestions include:

• strike a balance between conventional and distance delivery of training
• allot resources equitably to serve rural and urban communities’ needs
• balance distribution of funds carefully over time, considering the need to maintain a robust system of continuing professional development to keep their teachers up to date
• focus on teacher training, while enhancing its positive impact on the community.

Teacher identities and empowerment of girls against sexual violence

How can teachers help to empower girls against sexual violence?: experiences from eastern and southern Africa

By: Chege F
Published by: United Nations [UN] Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) , 2006
Via: Eldis

To understand how teachers can contribute to empowering students – especially girls – to build positive gender identities and violence-free relationships, it is important to understand the way that teachers’ own gender identities are created and acted out in both their personal lives and at work. There has been little examination of this question in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper describes the qualitative research undertaken by the author in countries of the Eastern and Southern Africa Region (ESAR). Drawing heavily on direct quotes from teachers and students, the author describes the way that teachers’ behaviour towards students helps to recreate negative gender relationships. In particular, male teachers are found to behave violently towards boys, and to sexualise and sexually harass girls – while school leaders often condone this behaviour when the girls complain. This, the author argues, creates negative role models for boys and disempowers the girls. To encourage teachers to recognise the effects of their own behaviour, the author offers the experience of using memory therapy with graduate student-teachers in Kenya. This approach encourages teachers and student-teachers to think about violence in their own childhoods through using a diary and engaging in discussions about their own experiences. The paper concludes that engaging teachers as well as trainee teachers in activities of self-reflexivity of sexual violence is a potentially effective way to raise understanding of the effects on students. This, the author argues, is the first step in engaging them in empowering girls and boys to prevent gendered and sexual violence.
(http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/elim-disc-viol-girlchild/ExpertPapers/EP.13%20chege.pdf)