Teaching in tension : international pedagogies, national policies, and teachers' practices in Tanzania / / edited by Frances Vavrus and Lesley Bartlett.

• Superior document: Pittsburgh studies in comparative and international education ; v. 2
• TeilnehmendeR: Vavrus, Frances.; Bartlett, Lesley.
• Year of Publication: 2013
• Edition: 1st ed. 2013.
• Language: English
• Series: Pittsburgh studies in comparative and international education ; 2.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (216 pages)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

In recent years, international efforts to improve educational quality in sub-Saharan Africa have focused on promoting learner-centered pedagogy. However, it has not fl ourished for cultural, economic, and political reasons that often go unrecognized by development organizations and policymakers. This edited volume draws on a long-term collaboration between African and American educational researchers in addressing critical questions regarding how teachers in one African country—Tanzania—conceptualize learner-centered pedagogy and struggle to implement it under challenging material conditions. One chapter considers how international support for learner-centered pedagogy has infl uenced national policies. Subsequent chapters utilize qualitative data from classroom observations, interviews, and focus group discussions across six Tanzanian secondary schools to examine how such policies shape local practices of professional development, inclusion, gender, and classroom discourse. In addition, the volume presents an analysis of the benefi ts and challenges of international research between Tanzanian and U.S. scholars, illuminating the complexity of collaboration as it simultaneously presents the outcome of joint research on teachers’ beliefs and practices. The chapters conclude with questions for discussion that can be used in courses on international development, social policy, and teacher education. “This volume, written by a multi-national team of scholar-practitioners, makes an important contribution to our understanding of learner-centered teaching and collaborative educational research. Based on an intensive investigation in Tanzania of a professional development program and teachers’ efforts to conceptualize and implement a globally-promoted pedagogical approach, the authors illustrate – and critically analyze – how these practices are enabled and constrained by cultural lenses, power relations, and material conditions. Importantly, they also examine refl exively how cultural, power, and resource issues shaped their struggle to engage in a collective praxis of qualitative inquiry. The tensions referenced in the title sparked valuable insights, which will be useful to educators, researchers, and policy makers.” — Mark Ginsburg, FHI 360 and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Frances Vavrus and Lesley Bartlett -- Introduction / Frances Vavrus , Lesley Bartlett and Victorini Salema -- The Emergence of an International Teacher Education and Research Collaboration / Frances Vavrus -- Learning to Teach in Tanzania / Maria Jose Bermeo , Zikani Kaunda and Dorothy Ngarina -- Teachers’ Understandings and Implementation of Learner-Centered Pedagogy / Lesley Bartlett and Emmanuel Mogusu -- Working Lives of Teachers / Frances Vavrus and Victorini Salema -- Testing and Teaching / Lesley Bartlett and Frances Vavrus -- Teachers’ Conceptualizations and Practices of Inclusion / Allen Rugambwa and Matthew A. M. Thomas -- Gendered Aspects of Classroom Practice / Matthew A. M. Thomas and Allen Rugambwa -- Classroom Discourse / Tamara Webb and Sarah Mkongo -- International Collaboration / Lesley Bartlett , Maria Jose Bermeo , Theresia Boniface , Emmanuel Mogusu , Dorothy Ngarina , Allen Rugambwa , Victorini Salema , Matthew A. M. Thomas , Frances Vavrus and Tamara Webb -- Notes on Contributors / Frances Vavrus and Lesley Bartlett -- Index / Frances Vavrus and Lesley Bartlett.