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Browsing by Subject "Educational Reform"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Bringing parent and community engagement back into the education reform spotlight: a comparative case study.
    (2010-03) Gordon, Molly F.
    In this study I argue that educational practitioners and policy makers cannot solve the problem of increasing student learning and growth by organizationally isolating the work of schools from communities. The purpose of this study was to explore which organizational conditions have enabled and which have hindered schools and communities from successfully working together to help students learn and grow. In addition, I explore why some districts and schools continue to struggle with engaging outside stakeholders despite their efforts. I used a comparative case study design and chose to investigate three districts and two schools within each of those districts in order to see how district engagement policies and practices filter down into schools. I used neo-institutional and organizational theories as conceptual tools. Results showed that district level engagement efforts were loosely-coupled with school level policies and practices. Policies that did exist around engagement were vaguely worded and weakly monitored. In addition, few innovative approaches existed to actively engage outside stakeholders. This study confirms the neo-institutional framework and its usefulness in examining engagement policies and practices.
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    Pedagogy as Social Practice and Teachers' Pedagogic Choices in Tanzanian Primary Schools
    (2020-01) Chachage, Kristeen
    Amidst the current push for improving the quality of education in Sub-Saharan Africa, a technicist approach to pedagogy, which focuses on inputs and technical teacher training, has come to predominate international aid to education and much of the related literature. In this dissertation, I argue that considering the intertwinement and simultaneity of multiple sociocultural aspects of classroom encounters can lead to deeper understanding of why teachers choose particular pedagogical practices. Sociocultural aspects include how classrooms and interactions are organized, teachers’ conceptions of knowledge, and moral aspects, such as what is considered good and proper behavior. I set out to understand from teachers’ perspectives, why they preferred certain pedagogical practices. I specifically analyzed how the availability and organization of resources, the competing discourses found in the curriculum and examinations, and moral norms and ideals influenced teachers’ practices, using the conceptual framework of pedagogy as a nexus of practice. I drew on ethnographic data gathered through intensive participant observation, informal discussions, semi-structured interviews, demographic surveys and review of curricular, policy and teaching materials in two Tanzanian public primary schools to understand teachers’ perspectives and identify key influences on their pedagogic choices. I found that the concepts of competence-based curriculum and learner-centered practices driving school quality reforms are largely tangential to teachers’ frames of reference. The teachers’ decisions are based on ensuring that students pass terminal exams and that they learn to live with/in the community’s norms for obedience, respect and cooperation. Their choices are further constrained by the material conditions in which they work, and by the degree to which teachers felt empowered to flexibly use available resources to meet student needs. These findings have implications for the feasibility of and approaches toward changing teachers’ pedagogic practices and systemic approaches to educational change.