"It's Because of the War!" Opportunities and Challenges of Implementing a Teacher Education Project in Sierra Leone

• In Event: 65.055 - Challenges to Change

Abstract

This paper examines the successes and challenges of implementing a teacher education project in rural Sierra Leone. Thirty school leaders participated in the project during which they attended workshops designed to improve methods of teaching literacy in their schools. Afterwards they taught the same literacy methods to teachers in their regions. Using a mixed method design, multiple data sources were collected and analyzed. Results indicated the school leaders grew in their knowledge of literacy methods, and workshop lessons were most engaging when pertaining to their social and cultural knowledge of Sierra Leone. The school leaders identified classroom teachers’ lack of formal education, limited financial resources and geographic distances between workshop sites as significant threats to project dissemination.

Authors

• Peter McDermott, Pace University

• Nancy Jane Allen, Qatar University