The Nexus between Teacher Education Institutes and Cluster Schools in Tigray Region: Practice, Impact, and Implications for the Quest for Quality Education
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Date
2011-02
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was suited in cluster school-Teacher Education Institutes relationship in Tigray
Region which aims to investigate the status accomplishment, practice and challenges, impact
along the contours of teacher’s class room practice, continuous professional development, and
sense of collegiality learning environment with the intention of engendering the ways/means for
sustainable partnership. Towards achieving this purpose, the study employed better combination
of qualitative and quantitative - mixed research. Consequently, the study involved participants
such as deans of the colleges, cluster unit coordinators of the college, school teachers, college
instructors, cluster supervisors, school directors, woreda education heads and group of council
students of the schools; using mixed sampling techniques. Corollary, data was collected through
questionnaire, in-depth interview, classroom observations, and document analysis as enriching
and triangulating data for the study. Following this, quantitative (descriptive and inferential
statistics) and qualitative(thematic analysis and interpretation) sub report, mixed data analysis
findings reveal that the partnership status vitality includes most descriptions of goals and
benefits at planning stage, however challenging implementation process and loosely monitoring
and evaluation system. The trainings and materials support provision the colleges render to the
schools on the one hand, and what all these supports the schools receive on the other hand, was
considered as mainstay with the partnership’s practice towards meeting its purposes. In effect,
TEIs/cluster school partnership offers tremendous opportunities in establishing model classes
and pedagogical resource center in the schools was unprecedented. Further to this, increasing
repertoire pedagogical knowledge and skills, initiating conducting action research as tool for
professional development were emerged to accrue from TEIs/cluster school partnership.
However, most of these partnership impacts found at the infancy stage with little desired
‘trickledown impacts’ of the potential advantages of partnership. On the top of this, the
TEIs/cluster schools partnership embedded the dearth of documentation and comprehensive
impact research, loosely monitoring and evaluation system, lack of budget, time constraints, lack
of delineated responsibilities and involvement of stakeholders, lack of organizational supports as
multitudes challenges which increases the pressure for enduring positive outcomes of the
partnership in more meaningful and sustainable manners. There was an apparent absence of
evidence that underpins TEIs/cluster schools were immersed in the authentic collaborative
atmosphere, hitherto, as to securing contrasting reciprocal opportunities in the quest for quality
of education improvement. Through the education partnership lenses, the research findings
encouraged critical [re]thinking of school/TEIs partnership to emulate its potentially enduring
impacts and far reaching developments for the quest quality of education improvements. To this
end, context based strategies and plausible recommendations call for unceasing concerns and
robust collaborative efforts of stakeholders perhaps an imperative to nurture and sustain the
future direction partnership.
Keywords: TEIs/cluster schools partnership, teacher professional development, collegiality
learning
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Keywords
TEIs/cluster schools partnership; teacher professional development ;collegiality learning