Teaching and learning in context : why pedagogical reforms fail in Sub-Saharan Africa / Richard Tabulawa.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tabulawa, Richard.

Series:

Codesria book series Teaching and learning in context

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Education and state--Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Education and state.

Failure (Psychology)--Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Failure (Psychology).

Teaching--Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Teaching.

Classroom management--Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Classroom management.

Teacher-student relationships--Africa, Sub-Saharan.

Teacher-student relationships.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (200 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Dakar, Senegal : CODESRIA, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Since the 1990s, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced unprecedented attempts at reforming teacher and student classroom practices, with a learner-centred pedagogy regarded as an effective antidote to the prevalence of teacher-centred didactic classroom practices. Attempts at reform have been going on all over the continent. In fact, learner-centred pedagogy has been described as one of the most pervasive educational ideas in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere. Research has revealed that the major attempts have largely failed mainly because teachers have not been able to adopt instructional innovations to technical problems. This failure is also related to lack of resources, and poor teacher training programmes which lead to poor teacher quality, among others. This book attempts to explain why pedagogical change has not occurred in spite of the much energy and resources that have been committed to such reforms.The book also takes us inside what the author calls 1/2the socio-cultural world of African classrooms to help us understand the reasons teachers dominate classroom life and rely disproportionately on didactic methods of teaching. Its conceptual analyses capture the best of both the sociology and the anthropology of education in contexts of poverty, as well as the politics of education.The book concludes that a socio-cultural approach should be the basis for developing culturally responsive indigenous pedagogies, though these may or may not turn out to be in any way akin to constructivist learner-centred pedagogies."

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Preface

1. Making a Case for a Socio-cultural Approach

Introduction

Defining Pedagogy

Learner-centred Pedagogy: A Brief Description

Learner-centred Pedagogy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Technical Rationality as an Epistemology of Practice

Towards a Socio-cultural Approach to Pedagogy

Tissue Rejection: An Analytical Tool

Conclusion

2. Why Learner-centred Pedagogy in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Why Learner-centred Pedagogy now?

Aid to Education from a World Systems Approach

Liberal Democracy and Capitalism: The (In)separable Marriage?

The Modernisation Paradigm: 1950-1980

Educational Aid and the Modernisation Project

Education and Democratisation in Periphery States

Learner-centredness and Economic Development

PEIP and the Consolidation of Democracy in Botswana: The Role of USAID

3. Learner-centredness and Teacher-centredness: Pedagogical Paradigms?

Concept of Paradigm

Epistemology and Pedagogical Paradigms

Scientific Legitimation of Teacher-centred Pedagogy

Scientific Justification of Learner-centered Pedagogy

4. Teacher-centred Pedagogy as Co-construction

Power and Power Relations: A Foucaultian View

Classroom Reality as Co-construction

Findings and Discussion

Construction of Teacher Dominance: The Role of Students

Teachers' Deficit View of Students

5. Social Structure and Pedagogy

Bourdieu on Education and Cultural Transmission

Tswana Cosmology as a Variant of African Cosmology

Tswana Child-rearing Practices and Formal Education: The link

6. Post-independence Educational Planning and Classroom Practice

Introduction.

Human Resource Planning in the Post-1966 era

Organisational Features of Mapoka Senior Secondary School (MSSS)

7. Missionary Education and Pedagogical Practice

Educational Development in Botswana under British administration

Primary Education

Secondary Education

Missionary Education and Classroom Practice

The Ideology of Cultural Supremacy

8. Curriculum as Context of Teaching and Learning

Contexts of Reform

A 'New' Role for Education?

The Rise of Accountability

9. Conclusion. Beyond Colonising Pedagogy

Bibliography

Back cover.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

2-08-697858-8

OCLC:

857063982