Shaking the rust off: engaging pre-service teacher education programs to improve primary grade reading outcomes in Zambia

• In Event: Innovative ideas and perspectives in teacher education and the teaching profession

Proposal

Many education interventions are currently underway in Zambia, funded by the government, international bilateral donors, foundations, and community-based organizations. The majority of these interventions focus on schools and provide in-service training for teachers currently serving in those schools. However, in order for changes to the Zambian education system to be sustainable, new approaches, materials, and pedagogies must also be embedded in the pre-service teacher education (PSTE) system. Greater engagement with the PSTE sector of the education system presents a range of opportunities as well as potential challenges and risks. We therefore designed an exploratory case study design focusing on the 10 Zambian colleges of education (COEs) and universities offering the primary teacher’s diploma (PTD) or bachelor’s degrees in education, to examine the extent to which these institutions are engaging with current approaches in schools and with education system stakeholders more broadly. To our knowledge, this is the first rigorous national study has been of Zambia’s COEs and SOEs offering the primary grades teaching diploma. Therefore, this study, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development as a component of the Transforming Teacher Education Activity, fills a major gap in the research on teacher training in Zambia, providing critical information for policymaking and program planning.

This study uses an exploratory mixed methods case study design. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through a hybrid approach involving in-person campus visits by the TTE activity team and remote interviews, observations and surveys conducted by Heads of Sections at the COEs, Heads of Department at the SOEs, University of Zambia (UNZA) faculty and Florida State University (FSU) faculty. Across ten COEs and two universities, we conducted surveys with 60 lecturers and 419 students, focus groups with 49 lecturers and 71 students, and interviews with 12 Deans or Principals, 12 Heads of Section/Department, and 15 Ministry of General Education officials. Our team observed instruction in 20 college/university classrooms and completed observation evaluations, visited demonstration primary schools affiliated with the PSTE institutions, and completed campus checklists at each institution. Photos were taken at each institution as a means of triangulating responses regarding resources. Qualitative interviews and focus groups were transcribed prior to analysis. Quantitative data was analyzed using Excel and Stata.

We found that PSTE institutions have very limited interactions with primary schools generally, and with in-service interventions specifically. For example, one college principal said that his lecturers did not understand what the Primary Literacy Programme (PLP)—the national approach to literacy instruction—was, because lecturers had not been included in the roll-out trainings. Lecturers frequently noted that they had heard of the USAID Let’s Read project or other interventions but had no knowledge of the interventions’ content or how to explain it to their PSTE students. A common thread amongst the colleges’ leadership was that the pre-service students are not exposed to the primary instructional materials used at the schools. The PSTE institutions were poorly equipped in terms of learning resources and lack current materials on early grade reading, including textbooks, leveled readers, and examples of evidence-based curricula. Another challenge in leveraging PSTE to improve primary grades learning is that professional development at the PSTE institutions is generally designed locally and based on the skills and knowledge of lecturers, who volunteer to lead sessions. There are consequently few opportunities for lecturers to learn new content and push their own pedagogy forward. As a result of the exclusion of the PSTE sector from in-service-focused education activities, the lack of current materials, and insufficient high-quality PD for PSTE lecturers, the knowledge pre-service primary teacher diploma students gain at their COEs and universities is often disconnected from what they will experience in their classrooms when they become teachers. While this study identified a number of areas that are barriers to the effective leveraging of PSTE to promote early grade reading outcomes, these barriers suggest areas of opportunity, where intervention may be particularly effective. We discuss these possibilities under Policy Recommendations below.

The findings from this study suggest four policy and programmatic recommendations. First, we argue that all education sector interventions should include PSTE lecturers in their trainings. If this is not done, it reduces the likelihood of sustainability in the future, as new teachers will enter the schools “looking rusty,” in the words of one principal. Second, PSTE institutions must have sufficient copies of current primary grades materials. If they have these materials to use in their courses, they can better prepare their students for their roles in schools. Third, PSTE institutions need well-designed, holistic PD rather than relying solely on locally developed, one-off sessions. If the capacity of PSTE lecturers can be development, they can have greater direct involvement in primary grades interventions, perhaps as in-service teacher trainers or materials developers. This is a particularly promising area of opportunity, as lecturers expressed strong interest in PD opportunities. Fourth, these recommendations require adequate budgetary support, which is currently lacking at the public PSTEs in Zambia. If these areas can be addressed, PSTE can be a powerful support in the ongoing efforts to improve learning for all children.

Authors

• Stephanie Zuilkowski, Florida State University

• Kristina Solum, School-to-School International

• David Sani Mwanza, The University of Zambia