Supporting teachers' professional development in a developing country through practice-based inquiry and distance learning: some key issues |
| |
| Authors: | David Ebbutt John Elliott |
| |
| Institution: | University of East Anglia , Norwich, United Kingdom |
| |
| Abstract: | Abstract This article highlights seven issues the authors encountered when they took on a very difficult task, namely of seeking, through ‘low tech’ print-based distance learning materials, to promote the professional development of experienced but untrained teachers in Namibia. The authors attempt to do this through the advocacy of an action research approach. There has been no tradition of action research in Namibia, indeed those within the country who promote this approach (the Minister of Higher Education) prefer the term Practice-based Inquiry. Moreover, the support systems that can normally be called into service in a developed country to support teachers in a distance learning initiative of this nature are virtually absent ‘on the ground’ in Namibia. The central question is can untrained teachers, themselves with a rudimentary formal education, be encouraged through a distance learning mode, to develop professionally by critically reflecting system strongly advocates ‘social reconstruction’? |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
