Democratic Teacher Education Reforms in Namibia

An analysis of teacher education reforms in Namibia in the post-independence era, from the perspective of government personnel, teacher educators, and teachers themselves.. This book examines post-independence teacher education reforms in the southern African country of Namibia from the perspective of various actors in the reform process: Ministry of Education personnel, teacher educators, teachers, school administrators, student teachers, and external consultants. These reforms are based on creating broad participation in defining and developing the reforms in relation to the goals of providing greater access, equity, quality and democracy in schooling. Action research and critical practitioner inquiry have played a major role in the realization of democratic participation in the reform process. Both the successes and the tensions associated with these reforms are analyzed. Namibia, a country of one and one-half million people in southern Africa, achieved independence from South Africa in 1990. At independence, the new SWAPO government sought to transform the countrys educational system from one that educated elites to one that provided a high quality basic education of at least ten years for all Namibians. A central aspect of these educational reform efforts has been the reform of teacher education for basic education and the professional development of teacher educators.This book examines post-independence teacher education reforms in Namibia from the perspectives of different actors in the reform process: Ministry of Education personnel, teacher educators, teachers, school administrators, student teachers, and external consultants. Consistent with the current focus on building internal capacity within Namibia to sustain the reforms and on creating Namibian knowledge about education, sixteen of the books nineteen chapters are authored by Namibians.The educational reforms in Namibia are based on four central goals of promoting greater access, equity, democracy, and quality. They seek to replace the former autocratic knowledge transmission system with one that is more leaner-centered, community-responsive, and focused on knowledge construction. Unlike many other educational reforms in African countries that have limited teachers and teacher educators to marginal roles as implementors of ideas and practices formulated away from the classroom, the Namibian reforms call for broad participation in defining and developing the reforms in ways that are consistent with the four general goals.