Transforming Teacher Quality in the Global South

Using Capabilities and Causality to Re-examine Teacher Performance

Sharon Tao

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781137495457
• Topic: Didattica
• Subtopic: Formazione dei docenti

A common story of teachers from the Global South portrays them as deficient, unreliable and unprofessional. However, this book uses an innovative Capability Approach/Critical Realist lens to reveal the causal links between teachers' constrained capabilities and their 'criticised' behaviours and offer nuanced, creative strategies for improvements.

1
Rethinking Teacher Quality in the Global South

In 2009, Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave a speech at the University of Oxford in which she discussed her discomfort with the single story of Africa that is often told – one that entails stark and constant portrayals of abject poverty, disease and violence.¹ She then made the poignant commentary that, ‘There is a danger in the single story … a single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story’ (Adichie, 2009).

At the time I came upon this speech I was immediately reminded of the single story of Tanzanian teachers I often came across in the literature on education and international development – a story that portrayed teachers as being absent from class, of being ill-prepared, of using questionable pedagogies, of hitting children with sticks (cf. Kironde, 2001; O-saki and Agu, 2002; McAlpine, 2008). Although I became familiar with these scenarios whilst volunteer teaching at a Tanzanian government primary school in 2004 and 2005, I was extremely uncomfortable with this single story. Not because it was entirely untrue, but like Ms Adichie, because I felt it was incomplete. Whilst teaching in Tanzania, I had often been humbled by the many challenges that teachers faced inside and outside of school, and had a feeling that there were a number of complex reasons behind their classroom actions. Yet upon coming across the single story in so much of the literature, it seemed that none of these complex stories were being told.

This book aims to provide a more complete story of teachers in Tanzania and in other low-income countries, more broadly. I will try to offer a more holistic understanding of teachers’ classroom actions in relation to what is often portrayed; or put simply, a more complete story of why Tanzanian teachers do what they do. This is not to say that all research contributes to the single story of Tanzanian teachers. Indeed, there is a small body of work that attempts to provide a more complete story with regard to specific issues surrounding teachers’ pedagogy (cf. Barrett, 2007; Vavrus, 2009; Wedin, 2010). I would like to build upon and expand this work by adding breadth and depth of understanding to additional aspects of teacher practice and behaviour. The rationale for such an endeavour is three-fold: first, a more fine-grained understanding of teacher behaviour can potentially provide more relevant, sustainable and effective policy and practice regarding teachers’ classroom actions. Second, this understanding will in large part draw upon teachers’ views, experiences and values, which can have positive analytical and political effects as it prioritises the knowledge and participation of teachers. And third, this nuanced, more complete story will help to disrupt the single story of Tanzanian teachers, as well as the tacit vilification that often accompanies it.

Teachers in Tanzania

The central role of teachers in the provision of a quality education has been explicitly recognised by Tanzania’s Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, most notably in its 1995 Education and Training Policy (United Republic of Tanzania, 1997), and its Primary Education Development Plans I, II and III, which were implemented in 2001, 2006 and 2014 respectively (United Republic of Tanzania, 2001; 2006; 2014). However, commentators within government, the international development community and academia frequently voice concerns about Tanzania’s teaching force (United Republic of Tanzania, 2003; Carr-Hill and Ndalichako, 2005). Different types of teacher practice and behaviour have often been criticised in research reports, such as absenteeism (Benavot and Gad, 2004), rote-teaching methods (Sumra, 2001), inadequate subject knowledge (Mrutu et al., 2005), and withholding content to support private tuition (Kironde, 2001), amongst others. Criticisms such as these can also be found in literature regarding teacher quality in other low- to middle-income countries, such as critiques of rote-teaching in Nigeria (Hardman et al., 2008); lack of teacher commitment in Indonesia (Suryadarma et al., 2006); and teacher absenteeism in India (Kremer et al., 2005). As a result of this literature, an implicit assumption of ‘poor quality teachers’ has developed; and in response, a discourse² of ‘Technical Assistance’ has evolved whereby many international development organisations and consultants introduce interventions to reduce or alter teachers’ ‘deficient’ practices, such as providing training in learner-centred pedagogies (Cooper and Alvarado, 2006) or using curricular calendars to ensure time on task (Abadzi, 2007). However, a number of Tanzanian researchers believe that ‘technocratic fixes of this kind have rarely worked since they fail to take into account the very difficult working and living conditions that teachers have to endure’ (Bennell and Mukyanuzi, 2005, p. 48). Sumra (2005, p. 2) expands on this notion when stating, ‘Increased resources and training are not necessarily the sole areas that need to be addressed. Teachers’ social environment, attitudes, and working conditions are inter-related in a complex way and need to be understood better if efforts to improve education in the country are to succeed’.³

Given these sentiments, another group of literature reflects an important trend that has been taking shape in recent years, which is that of including teachers’ voice and participation in the research process. This in effect mitigates some of the homogenisation and assumption found in the first group of literature, as it begins to look at teacher practice and behaviour from the teacher’s point of view. As well, it starts to dispel certain presuppositions that teachers and educators in different contexts abide by a universal set of educational goals and values. For example, Barrett (2007) and Vavrus (2009) investigate the acute environmental and social conditions that contribute to and often justify the various forms of teacher-centred pedagogies in Tanzania. Other authors enumerate the myriad of material deprivations in Tanzanian teachers’ occupational and personal lives, such as substandard classrooms and housing, lack of teaching materials, and excessive workloads (Cooksey et al., 1991; Sumra, 2005). Some authors attempt to relate these to low levels of teacher motivation (Bennell and Mukyanuzi, 2005; Davidson, 2007); however Fry (2002, p. 22) is quick to note that such an effort still does not demonstrate ‘a direct causal link between teacher motivation, performance and quality education’. This speaks to the need to provide concrete connections between the poor motivation and conditions of service outlined by Sumra, Fry and others, with the pedagogical practices explained by Vavrus and Barrett, and teachers’ previously discussed ‘deficient’ behaviours. Such connections would help to unpack the black box that obscures the interplay between teachers’ personal states, their working conditions and their criticised practices. And with a fuller understanding of how these interrelate, more detailed explanations of teachers’ classroom actions might be had.

Thus, in an effort to unpack this black box, this book aims to provide holistic and nuanced understandings of a variety of teacher practices and behaviours. By examining the limitations and strengths of the theoretical and methodological resources that have been hitherto deployed by research on teachers, I have generated my own framework for analysis that attempts to address identified limitations. In the first part of this book, I use this new framework to frame and analyse data collected from the field in Tanzania in order to produce robust, theoretically grounded connections between what teachers think, experience and ultimately do. In the second part of this book, I discuss how this framework can be used to analyse and develop interventions aiming to improve teacher quality within other contexts.

Unpacking the term ‘Teacher Quality’

Before discussing a new framework or lens through which to look at teacher quality, it is worth unpacking this amorphous term. ‘Teacher Quality’ is often understood intuitively, however its definition is much less concrete as it is often tied to the contexts and discourses within which it resides. Generally speaking, the term teacher quality has its origins in performance and managerial discourses (Sachs, 2001; Moore, 2004), and has often been positioned as an antecedent to the wider concept of ‘education quality’. As such, the concept of teacher quality has flourished into its own research area with an accompanying bounty of literature. Whilst conducting a review for ActionAid on journal articles published between 2000 and 2008, that emerged from education databases using only the key words ‘teacher quality’ (cf. Edge et al., 2008), I found that researchers from a variety of contexts seemed to draw implicitly on four broad categories that they believe is constitutive of teacher quality (these categories have either been used alone or in combination):

1) Teacher practice and behaviour: including pedagogy, teacher behaviour and activity at school, types of relationships with students, and classroom management (cf. Gu and Day, 2007; Hardman et al., 2008; Miller et al., 2008).

2) Teacher personal characteristics: including teacher personality traits, dispositions, identities, attitudes, internal states, and professional qualities that influence practice (cf. Coultas and Lewin, 2002; Wayne and Youngs, 2003; Cheung et al., 2008).

3) Training and qualification: including types of training that are needed/effective, types of qualifications that are needed/adequate, and emphasis of content or pedagogy (cf. Darling-Hammond, 2000; Fwu and Wang, 2002; Courtney, 2007).

4) Assessment and evaluation: including teacher effects on pupil achievement, principal/inspectorate classroom visits and teacher evaluation checklists (cf. Heck, 2007; Ladd and Vigdor, 2007; Van de Grift, 2007).

Texts drawing on these categories address different countries and contexts, have different theoretical underpinnings and display a diversity of goals, most notably investigating and delineating what a ‘good’ (or ‘bad’) teacher is. This latter aim is often situated within broader discourses that cut across the above-mentioned categories and denote ‘the constructed linguistic, conceptual and ethical parameters within which our perceptions of teachers are framed’ (Moore, 2004, p. 28). For example, Moore (2004) has identified three dominant discourses within the UK context, which include the ‘competent craftsperson’, the ‘reflective practitioner’ and the ‘teacher as charismatic subject’; all of which cut across the four categories and entail accompanying identities and narratives. He also argues that discourses such as these ‘limit our conceptual, experiential and perspectival horizons, constraining us to understand things in certain “legitimised” ways rather than in other (pathologised or unacknowledged) ones’ (Moore, 2004, p. 29).

With regard to teachers in the Global South, I believe there is also a ‘Third World Teacher’ discourse that cuts across the four aforementioned categories, and limits our understanding of teachers. In addition to this, it should be noted that much of the literature surrounding teachers in developing country contexts often focuses on the category of teacher practice and behaviour, and frequently views these as determinants or indicators of teacher quality.

Third world teachers: the discursive process

Over the years, postcolonial writers have made great inroads in uncovering and exposing the assumptions, power relations and politics inherent in the organisation and production of particular discourses. One such writer is Chandra Mohanty who, in her essay entitled Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses, examined and identified certain analytical processes in Western feminist texts that produce a monolithic identity of the ‘Third World Woman’; which she argues, implicitly intones a universal oppression that can only be remedied with Western Feminist ethos and aid (Mohanty, 1991). I take inspiration from and would like to build upon Mohanty’s work by demonstrating similar discursive moves made within the realm of education and international development. More specifically, I will articulate the concept of an implicit ‘Third World Teacher’ discourse that is present in literature that has been published on the topic of teacher quality in Tanzania and other developing countries. I will also demonstrate how this discourse has led to and is present in a more explicit discourse of ‘Technical Assistance’, which is prevalent amongst many international development organisations and institutions. This critique includes a discussion of important texts that have effectively eschewed some of the analytical moves responsible for the Third World Teacher discourse; however, an analysis of the limitations of these works will also make apparent the need for further theorisation to provide more thorough avenues for understanding Tanzanian teachers.

Before proceeding, some ground clearing is in order. Although Mohanty does not explicitly address the intention behind her use of the term ‘Third World’, it would seem that it is not meant to be a reflection of her own thinking; rather it is to name a discourse in all of its political incorrectness – a discourse that forms dualistic classifications steeped in implicit values, assumptions and over-generalisations that many postcolonial writers have rightfully challenged (cf. Abdi, 2003; Dei, 2003; Mkosi, 2005). In a similar vein, I too shall use the term ‘Third World’ with the same political intent. To this, a second clarification is needed. It should be noted that my forthcoming critiques of particular texts do not represent a rejection of Western research or knowledge sharing. Rather, their aim is to provide an internal critique of a predominant discourse within education and international development in order to heighten reflexivity and consciousness of the discursive patterns that produce it.

That said, one of the first discursive patterns that Mohanty critiques with regard to Third World Women, or in this case, Third World Teachers, is the assumption that the descriptive category of ‘teachers in the Third World’ can be used as a category for analysis. It is one thing to descriptively characterise teachers from the continent of Africa as ‘teachers from Africa’, however, it is problematic when this descriptive term takes on sociological meaning. Often ‘teachers from Africa’ are viewed as a homogeneous group that possesses and acts on identical interests, beliefs and intentions. The assumption that teachers – irrespective of gender, years of experience, socio-economic background, religious faith or ethnicity – act and have values based on a singular identity can lead to a deeply misled understanding of teachers. This indiscriminate understanding also leaves subsequent analyses and policies lacking in nuance or relevance.

An example of this subtle and unproductive homogenisation can be seen in literature such as, Absenteeism and Beyond: Instructional Time Loss and Consequences, in which Abadzi (2007) outlines a World Bank study on the negative effects of teacher absenteeism and off-task instructional practices in Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia, and Brazil. Although this report focuses on four very different countries, the author often characterises teachers from these four contexts as a singular group, and homogenises further when broadening her analysis to include teachers from other developing nations. For example:

Teachers in low-income areas often do not know how much time to devote to certain topics or how to budget their time throughout the year. Teacher training and supervision rarely focuses on the use of allocated time or on planning to ensure that curricula are covered during the year. One means for doing so is giving teachers curricular calendars to help them easily visualise where they should be and to prevent classes from falling behind (Abadzi, 2007, p. 16) [emphasis added].

Abadzi does not use the term ‘teachers in low-income areas’ for descriptive purposes, rather it is used for its explanatory potential as the origin of problems, which overlooks the material, social and personal factors that constitute behaviour. This analysis makes the assumption that all teachers have the same reasons for acting in a particular way (not knowing how to budget their time), and thus, prescriptive solutions (such as curricular calendars) are generated not from contextual or situational understandings, but from assumptions based on a homogenised identity of teachers from the low-income world. This leap occurs elsewhere in Abadzi’s text:

Training teachers to use time better is particularly challenging in low-income countries … Teachers tend to be unaware of the degree to which their habits impact student learning and data from this study suggest that some spend more time in ‘classroom management’ activities than others. To decrease off-task behaviour, teachers need better classroom management strategies to gain and retain attention of the students … However this is a challenging task, given that training programmes often fail to modify behaviours. Training programmes in many countries are weak on classroom management strategies, and outside expertise is needed (2007, p. 40) [emphasis added].

The illusion of a single homogenised group of ‘teachers from low-income countries’ draws on the supposition that teachers should not be understood as having varied reasons, aims, or beliefs concerning their actions, but rather be viewed as a single unit that straightforwardly acts in the same way (time wasting) for the same reason (ignorance of how their behaviour impacts students). This singular classification is not only reductive as an approach to description, but is also similarly reductive when suggesting corresponding strategies. Ironically enough, Abadzi does note that such strategies ‘often fail to modify behaviours’, but does not seem to understand that this may be because they overlook the daily existence and complexities of teachers, as well as the varied political, professional and personal interests that may influence their actions. What might be more productive are analyses and theorisations that are generated from within a situation or context, so as to also suggest corresponding effective strategies (rather than sending in ‘outside expertise’ to import outsider practices).

Another broad, situational analysis that falls into a similar discursive pattern is Dembele and Miaro-II’s Pedagogical Renewal and Teacher Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Thematic Synthesis (2003) for the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). This is a thoughtful synthesis report that attempts to draw conclusions about improving the quality of teachers from research conducted in various sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa. However, many reductions and generalisations of teachers still exist:

Undesirable teaching practices persist. Such practices can be described in a nutshell as being rigid, chalk-and-talk, teacher-centred/dominated, lecture-driven pedagogy. Such pedagogy places students in a passive role and limits their activity in class to memorising facts and reciting them back to the teacher. It is also reflected in classroom assessment practices. They are reported to be the norm in the vast majority of classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, even in the most affluent countries (Dembele and Miaro-ll, 2003, p. 7).

In this example, the authors refer to and define a group of ‘sub-Saharan African teachers’ through their reported classroom practices. ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations and Acronyms
• 1 Rethinking Teacher Quality in the Global South
• Part I Capabilities, Causality, and Teacher Practice: An Examination of Tanzanian Complexities
• Part II Putting the CA/CR Lens into Practice: New Paths for Transforming Teacher Quality
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index