The Changing Landscape of Teachers' Work in Malawi

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Teaching Across Contexts: Meaning Making Across Complex Landscapes

Abstract

Teachers’ work is a contested space, situated at the intersection of the multiple and contradictory aims placed on education systems by disparate actors. In their daily practices, teachers must navigate these competing demands. This is particularly true in Malawi, where policy, donor, and NGO activities enlist teachers in a host of ways. The primary objective of this research is to understand how these influences collide with the work of teaching. This paper draws from ethnographic research at one government-run primary school in Malawi where I examine how teachers appropriate reform and engage in on-going meaning-making around their work. I find great variation in how individual teachers understand their work and reimagine their work vis-à-vis international reforms.

Author

• Alyssa L Morley, Michigan State University