Educating the teacher educator—A Ugandan case study

International Journal of Educational Development 30 (2010) 377–387

Educating the teacher educator—A Ugandan case study

Margo C. O’Sullivan *

Mary Immaculate College, South Circular Road, Limerick, Ireland

A R T I C L E I N F O

Keywords:

Teacher educator

Uganda

Context

Teacher educator knowledge

Teacher educator identity

A B S T R A C T

Who educates teacher educators? How are teacher educators educated and prepared for their roles and

tasks? This article uses a review of a two-year full-time Diploma in Teacher Education (DTE) for teacher

educators in Uganda to engage with these questions. The article begins with a presentation of the

Ugandan teacher education context and a literature review, focusing mainly on teacher educator

knowledge, preparation, roles and tasks. It then presents the review process and discusses the main

findings that emerged, exploring their implications for the education of teacher educators in Uganda and

internationally. The main implications concern the critical role of teacher education pedagogy, context,

teacher educator knowledge, tasks and roles, reflective practice, practitioner research, and the

background, capacities and education of the educator of teacher educators.

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1. Introduction

‘‘If the DTE [Diploma in Teacher Education] doesn’t producequality tutors [primary teacher educators], then the wholesystem breaks down. If you have poorly trained tutors how canthey train good quality teachers’’ (Principal, Primary Teachers’College, Uganda, August 2006).

‘‘No Education system can be better than the quality of itsteachers . . .’’ (Ugandan White Paper on Education). The criticalrole of teachers in quality education has become widely acceptedglobally, and, in particular, in developing countries. Qualityeducation emerged at the notable Jomtien conference in 1990and since then the quality of primary and primary teachereducation has been high on the agenda of developing countries,their donors and international education academics (Motala,2001; EFA, 2005; O’Sullivan, 2006). This has led to variousinitiatives and reforms, which sought to improve quality, withconsiderable focus being placed on improving the quality ofteacher preparation. However, little attention has been focusedon teacher educators in developing countries and on preparingthem for their roles and tasks. This lack of attention is also foundin Western countries and has recently begun to emerge in theliterature—our knowledge about the teacher educator and his/her preparation is very poor and it is an under-researched area(Koster et al., 2005; Murray and Male, 2005; Cochran-Smith,2003).

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Uganda is unique in developing countries and globally in that itrequires all teacher educators to complete a two-year full-timeDiploma in Teacher Education (DTE) programme, which emergedin the 1960s, to prepare them for their role as teacher educators.Admission to the programme requires a diploma in Education andteaching experience in primary or secondary schools, though mostDTE students have primary teaching backgrounds. In 2006, theauthor was involved in a comprehensive review of the DTE (MoES,2006). The review was conducted within a larger study of PrimaryTeacher Education curricula in Uganda, with the focus onreviewing DTE, which emerged from concerns raised regardingits effectiveness, in light of the poor quality of its graduates’ workas teacher educators in Primary Teacher Colleges in Uganda. Themain objectives of the review were: to carry out an evaluation ofthe DTE programme, in light of Ministry of Education consideringreplacing it with a two-year Bachelors in Teacher Education (BTE)programme; to highlight overlaps and gaps in the programme; touse the findings to make recommendations for the development ofan effective revised DTE/new BTE programme that wouldsuccessfully enable the training of teacher educators with thecapacity to train primary teachers of quality. The ultimate purposeof the Review was to enable the Ministry of Education and Sports toprepare a strategy and implementation plan for the developmentof a revised DTE/BTE programme.

The review provided a number of insights into the preparationof teacher educators in Uganda, which this article will explore in anattempt to throw some light on the neglected area of the educationof teacher educator. The article will begin with a discussion of thecontext within which teacher educators in Uganda are educated,including an overview of the Diploma in Teacher Educationprogramme. It will then present a review of the available literatureconcerning the education of the teacher educator. This will lead

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M.C. O’Sullivan / International Journal of Educational Development 30 (2010) 377–387378

into the research methods used for the review and a discussion ofthe data and main findings that emerged, in an effort to engagewith the question—How are teacher educators in Uganda educatedand prepared for their roles and tasks? The discussion section willuse the data and findings to explore the issues concerning theknowledge, roles and tasks of teacher educators in Uganda,specifically, concerning the critical role of pedagogical [teachereducation] knowledge in teacher education programmes, theimportance of context, in particular, the usefulness of a contextualteaching and learning conceptualization of quality, the key roles ofsupervisor and mentor, the importance of research and reflectivepractice, and the capacity of the educators of educators of teachereducators. The conclusion will highlight the main lessons thatemerge and how they can usefully inform the education of teachereducators in other developing and Western countries.

1.1. The Education system in Uganda and the education of teacher

educators

Uganda uses a 7-4-2 system of Education, seven years ofprimary school, four years of lower secondary school and two yearsof Senior Secondary School. Children begin primary school at sixyears of age. The majority of children attend primary school. In1997, the Government of Uganda introduced Universal PrimaryEducation (UPE), which has led to its current net enrolment rate(MoES, 2008) of 92.3%. Consequently, Uganda is likely to achieveUPE and Millenium Development Goal 2. However, the dropoutrates are considerable, and half of all children who begin primaryschool are not completing it (MoES, 2008). Of considerable concernis that of those who stay in school, their learning achievements arelow. In 2008, only 47% of children achieved expected literacy levelsat Primary Three and 51% at Primary Six, and 46% of childrenachieved the expected numeracy levels at Primary Three (P3) and44% at Primary Six (P6). As low as these results are, they are aconsiderable improvement on the 2003 National Assessments innumeracy and literacy findings, which highlighted that in P3 34.3%of pupils and in P6 20% of pupils had reached expected literacylevel (MoES, 2003a,b). The scores were similar for numeracy—in P342.9% and in P6 20.5% of pupils were at the expected level (MoES,2003a,b). These 2003 results galvanized the Ministry of Educationand Sports to refocus their efforts on quality and teaching andlearning, and move away from their focus on access, which theintroduction of UPE in 1997 led to. This focus led to a number ofpolicies and activities, which seek to address the various causes ofthe poor learning outcomes. Teacher Education emerged as criticalto improving quality and this led to a review of all TeacherEducation programmes in 2006.

In Uganda, trainee primary teachers complete a two-year full-time Primary Teacher Education (PTE) Certificate programme atone of 51 Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTCs). 45 of the PTCs aregovernment funded, with all students being sponsored, and six areprivately funded. Students enter the programme upon completionof four years of lower secondary school and they require sixpasses, including passes in Mathematics, English and Science. Thelatter entry conditions were introduced in 2006 to address issuesaround the low cognitive capacities of students entering thecolleges at that time. Student teachers enrolling in the Govern-ment funded PTCs are sponsored by the Government of Uganda. Togain employment as a Tutor [Teacher Educator] at one of the PTCs,one has to hold a Diploma in Teacher Education. The Diploma inTeacher Education is a government sponsored, two-year full-timeprogramme, which begun in the 1960s to ensure that teachereducators were equipped to successfully educate primaryteachers, who at that time entered colleges upon completion ofsix years of primary school and completed a three-yearprogramme. One government institution is mandated to offer

it, with the institution in 2003, becoming amalgamated within anEducation Department of a University. Entrants are mainlyprimary teachers, with a few secondary teachers, who havecompleted a diploma [primary teachers can complete a three-yearpart-time Diploma in Primary Education]. Ad hoc data suggeststhat at least some DTE students and graduates of the programmeview it is a route to further education, as it is a governmentsponsored programme, and to promotion within the educationsector. A number of officials in the district education offices and inthe Ministry of Education offices have completed the DTEprogramme.

The current DTE programme, which was revised in 1999,requires all students to take: the Professional Studies subject,which includes curriculum theory, Sociology/Psychology/Philoso-phy of Education, complete a research project, and undertake twoseven weeks’ college practice placements. Students also specialisein the teaching of two subjects or one double mains subject, not allof which are taught at PTCs. The two subjects can be chosen from:Religious Education; Social Studies Education; Music Education;Physical Education; Mathematics Education; English LanguageEducation; Kiswahili Education; Local Language Education;Foundations of Education; and Early Childhood Education. Doublemains subject options include: Agriculture; Art and Crafts;Business Studies; Home Economics; Technological Studies; andScience and Health Education. There are six lecture hours per weekfor Professional Studies and 7 h a week for each of the two subjectsor 14 h for a double mains subject.

The objectives of the DTE programme are to enable the traineeteacher educator to:

i. Develop a deep understanding of the role of Teacher Education,its principles and applications to the Grade III Primary TT[Teacher Training] programme in Uganda.

ii. Acquire concepts, knowledge, skills and attitudes in the studenttutors’ selected subjects for purposes of teaching at the Grade IIIPTC level

iii. Examine and improve the quality of T&L [Teaching andLearning] at the PTC and Primary School level.

iv. Make use of T&L materials for both PTC and Primary Schoollevels.

v. Acquire key concepts, inquiry, skills and techniques andappropriate attitudes for use in Educational supervision,curriculum development and evaluation.

vi. Acquire knowledge and skills for planning, execution andapplication of Educational research for purposes of improvingthe learning processes and Education in general.

The objectives are further developed into key competences of agraduate of the programme:

i. Design, interpret and develop the curricula of PTE and PrimarySchool levels.

ii. Teach competently at both PTE and Primary School levels.iii. Demonstrate adequate mastery of the professional and

teaching subject matter.iv. Guide and counsel the professional growth of student teachers

and primary teachers.v. Supervise, evaluate and assess student teacher performance in

schools.vi. Conduct, interpret, supervise and apply Educational research

to solve Educational problems and make decisions aboutEducational issues.

vii. Design, select, make use of instructional materials as well asguide other teachers in the design and use of variousEducational materials.

viii. Relate appropriately to the community in which he/she works.

M.C. O’Sullivan / International Journal of Educational Development 30 (2010) 377–387 379

ix. Provide guidance and democratic leadership and mobilise theschool and community in which he/she lives for purposes ofEducation and development.

x. Demonstrate efficient and effective managerial, social, scien-tific and entrepreneurial skills in all aspects of life.

xi. Exhibit knowledge, belief and observance and practice theprofessional code of conduct and ethics of teachers.

The literacy and numeracy achievements of Ugandan learners(MoES, 2003a,b), presented earlier, highlight that the objectives ofthe DTE programme are not being achieved and that the teachereducators graduating from the programme have not developed thekey competences above. If the graduates had developed thecompetences, they would have had the capacity to enable thedevelopment of primary teachers at PTCs, who could bring aboutmore successful learning in primary schools. Recent reports inUganda, both Ministry of Education and donor reports, highlightthat the Primary Teacher Education (PTE) curricula, which includethe PTE certificate curriculum and the DTE, were outdated,‘‘obsolete’’, overloaded, and fail to develop quality teachers, andurgently need to be revised (MoES, 2003a, 2005). The claimconcerning the outdated nature of the DTE refers, in particular, tothe need to include various national and international develop-ments in pedagogy and Teacher Education in the DTE curriculum.Also, the DTE curriculum does not include the numerous initiativesin a number of areas that have been introduced in someinstitutions in Uganda in recent years. These include, for example,Guidance and Counselling, HIV/AIDS education, gender, PeaceEducation, Psycho-Social Education, teaching in multi-gradeclasses, teaching in large classes, community mobilisation andinvolvement in schools, special needs education, children inconflict areas, mentoring, Peace Education, and Psycho-SocialEducation. The Ugandan governments’ Education Sector StrategicPlan (EESP), in which quality underpins all activities, highlights itscommitment to addressing the growing concern with theinadequacies of the PTE curricula, and included its review in itsworkplan—‘‘review the PTE, DEP, DTE and B.Ed. in line with thePrimary School curriculum’’ (MoES, 2005, p. 59).

1.2. Educating the teacher educator

1.2.1. Teacher education in developing countries and the teacher

educator

Research studies indicate that teacher education has had littleimpact on the quality of teaching and learning provided byqualified teachers in schools in developing countries. In three outof four countries in Heneveld’s (2006, p. 9) recent study on thequality of Primary Education in Uganda, Madagascar, Mozambiqueand Tanzania, ‘‘the data did not suggest any significant differencesin teaching performance between teachers who had been trainedand those with less Education and no or little teacher training’’.Numerous reports conducted by and for the Ministry of Educationin Uganda indicate that the PTE certificate programme is notpreparing teachers who can bring about successful teaching andlearning in Primary Schools (Burke et al., 2002; MoES, 2003a,2006).

For almost two decades now, there has been a focus on qualityof education, the EFA Goal six ‘Improving all aspects of the qualityof education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized andmeasurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially inliteracy, numeracy and essential life skills’. Yet, this focus andcorresponding initiatives have failed to improve considerablychildren’s learning achievements. A number of reasons haveemerged to explain this, with many highlighting the failure to useeffective reform strategies to implement initiatives as the mainreason (Dyer, 1999; O’Sullivan, 2002). However, another reason,

the conceptualisation of quality underlying various educationreform initiatives, is emerging in the literature. O’Sullivan (2003,2006) engages with this notion, arguing that most initiatives viewquality as being about providing inputs, or focusing on outputs,and failing to focus on processes and what actually goes on inclassrooms, specifically, the quality of teaching and learningprocesses. Chapman and Adams’ (2002, p. 19) use of researchconducted by the World Bank on teacher characteristics tohighlight that ‘‘proxies for teacher quality – such as type ofcertification, pre-service education, or salary – typically are notrelated to student learning achievement’’, further supports this.O’Sullivan (2006) proposes a useful conceptualisation of quality ascontextual teaching and learning processes, she proposes thatcountries identify teaching and learning practices that are effectivein their contexts and train teachers to use these. The EducationSector Strategic Plan (MoES, 2007, p. 5) in Uganda uses thisteaching and learning conceptualisation—‘‘Above all, it [ESSP] aimsat improving the quality of Education—what participants learn andhow they learn’’.

With this contextual teaching and learning processes concep-tualization of quality, the effectiveness of teachers’ practices areparamount. Critical to enabling this is teacher education and thequality of teacher education provided by teacher educators. Yet,little research has been conducted into the teacher educator indeveloping countries, though insights have emerged from a fewresearch studies. For example, O’Sullivan’s (2002) research foundthat teacher educators in Namibia use lecture methods to trainstudent primary teachers to implement child-centred methods.Student teachers are thus, not provided with any opportunities todevelop their pedagogical skills in using a variety of child-centredmethods. O’Sullivan’s (2002) article argues that teacher educators’failure to use methods other than rote learning provides anexplanation for the failure of qualified Namibian primary teachersto implement child-centred methods in their teaching.

1.2.2. Teacher educator preparation

The literature review highlights that preparation for teachereducators tends to be ad hoc, with the responsibility forprofessional preparation and development being the responsibilityof the teacher educators themselves. Murray and Male’s (2005)research study among newly appointed teacher educators in theUK found induction procedures for Teacher Educators in the UKhighly variable. Their study found that it takes up to three yearsafter appointment for teacher educators to become confident andat ease and that the transition from teacher to teacher educator isoften stressful. Stress is mainly caused by uncertainty about newprofessional roles and concerns about adequacy of knowledge.Most relied on using their own experience as teachers to trainteachers, struggled to reconcile research with their teaching andneeded to develop new skills to engage with mentor teachers inschools. The study found that some teacher educators remainrooted in schools as their teacher identities were stronger. One ofthe main recommendations to emerge from these studies was theneed for some structured preparation strategies for teachereducators.

Some teacher educators participate in doctoral programmes inan effort to develop their teacher educator capacities (Abell, 1997).Even though there few programmes specifically focused on theteacher educator (Cochran-Smith, 2003), Abell (1997), asks aquestion concerning these—are doctoral programmes enough forteacher educators’ professional preparation and development? Shehighlights that ‘‘most doctoral science education programmesignore another essential component in our students’ professionaldevelopment. We know that many of our students will also teachteachers. Yet, where and how in our programmes do they learnabout science teacher education?’’ (Abell, 1997, p. 1). It is


reasonable to assume that this is relevant to other teachereducation subject areas. There is a need to devise, she argues, moredoctoral programmes that will specifically support the profession-al preparation and development of teacher educators.

Cochran-Smith (2003) provides another approach to teachereducator preparation–she argues that the ‘‘teacher educator asenquirer’’ provides a critical tool for teacher educator preparationand professional development. She uses the recent emergence ofthe ‘teacher educator as enquirer’ movement as evident in anumber of teacher educators’ articles reflecting on their practices,and her own reflection as a teacher educator, to suggest that‘‘inquiry can be central to the education of teacher educators’’(Cochran-Smith, 2003, p. 10). It involves learning new knowledgeand unlearning long-held ideas, beliefs and practices. She‘‘conceptualise the education of teacher educators as an ongoingprocess of learning and unlearning with inquiry as stance’’(Cochran-Smith, 2003, p. 10). ‘‘Rather than inquiry as a projector activity, inquiry as a stance is an intellectual perspective—a wayof questioning, making sense of, and connecting one’s day-to-daywork to the work of others and larger social, historical, cultural andpolitical contexts’’ (Cochran-Smith, 2003, p. 24). She views theeducation of teacher educators as ‘‘an ongoing and recursiveprocess’’ (Cochran-Smith, 2003, p. 24). Doecke (2004, p. 2), ateacher educator, who published an enquiry into his work, used theterm ‘‘self-study’’ to define his enquiries.

Robinson and McMillan (2006, p. 328) point out that ‘‘research,reflection and inquiry need to become essential aspects of the livesof teacher educators,’’ in light of the lack of formal preparation andprofessional development for teacher educators. Teacher educa-tors are by and large drawing on their own resources as theyprepare new teachers in this situation (Robinson and McMillan,2006). Murray and Male (2005) support this, highlighting that inthe UK teacher educators are expected to further their knowledgebase of their specialist field through scholarly activities andresearch. The literature highlights the usefulness of research inhigher education. Studies in the UK, for example, have tracked howundergraduate and postgraduate students view the respectivebenefits of their lecturers’ involvement in research and teaching(Lindsey et al., 2002). The authors of this study argue that explicitstrategies are needed to strengthen the potential linkages andsynergy between teaching and research. Based on their NewZealand experience, Robertson and Bond (2001) suggest that it isimportant to move beyond a teaching versus research debate, andto explore the nature of the relationship between these twofundamental aspects of academics’ work.

Murray and Male’s (2005) study highlighted the difficulties thatteacher educators experienced in their efforts to becomeresearchers. A study on teacher educators in South Africa high-lights a similar problem—‘‘It was only the analysis of the data thatrevealed that the promotion of research, reflection and enquiry inthe Faculty was more than a ‘technical’ exercise of re-shufflingslots on a timetable’’ (Robinson and McMillan, 2006, p. 331). ‘‘Theanalysis indicated here suggests that freeing up spaces in atimetable for research, reflection and enquiry, although important,is not likely to be a sufficient condition for the promotion of suchenquiry’’, though the study did find that time was a significantfactor (Robinson and McMillan, 2006, p. 334). The capacity toreflect and conduct research to inform teaching, requires sometraining, which, it seems from the literature, is not provided toteacher educators.

1.2.3. Teacher educator knowledge, roles and tasks

Cochran-Smith (2003, p. 24) highlights that until recently‘‘there had been little attention to development of a curriculum foreducating teacher educators, or to local and larger policies thatmight support the development of what teacher educators need to

know and do in order to meet the complex demands of preparingteachers for the 21st Century’’. However, in recent years, teachereducator knowledge, roles and tasks has begun to be documented.In Murray and Male’s (2005) research in the UK the development ofpedagogy for teaching teachers was a key knowledge area thatemerged. Their study highlighted ‘‘that teacher educators need anextensive knowledge base of schooling and teacher education (seeJohn, 1996) and engage in extended and complex pedagogical rolesin their teaching’’ (Murray and Male, 2005, p. 140). They use thefindings to engage with models of teacher educator professional-ism. They discuss Watson’s (2000) two-part model of academicprofessionalism for knowledge and expertise required for allteaching in Higher Education—knowledge and expertise in subject/discipline and pedagogical capability to teach subject. Murray andMale (2005) suggest, however, that this model is oversimplistic forteacher educators, as both parts of the model are inseparable forteacher educators. A more useful model for teacher educators,which has informed Watson’s model, might be Shulman’s (1987)notable teacher knowledge model, which divides the pedagogicalcapability into pedagogical content knowledge and generalpedagogic knowledge.

Another knowledge area emerged among South African teachereducators—the need to keep abreast of curricular and policydocuments and to keep up-to-date with new developments in theirdiscipline as they are training teachers for a different classroom tothe one they experienced. This is particularly relevant to SouthAfrica, where teacher educators are preparing new teachers forschools that are very different from the schools they themselvesexperienced as young people—‘‘Teachers now have to be preparedto teach in schools where children come from different racialbackgrounds, something which often goes hand in hand withdifferent language or socio-economic backgrounds’’ (Robinson andMcMillan, 2006, p. 331).

Related to teacher education knowledge are their roles andtasks. The literature suggests that teacher educators’ roles andtasks are becoming more defined than the ad hoc teacher educatorpreparation arrangements. The literature highlights, in particular,three roles: teacher educator as teacher; teacher educator asresearcher and enquirer; and teacher educators’ vocational role(Murray and Male, 2005; Robinson and McMillan, 2006). Robinsonand McMillan (2006) explore the similarities between the formertwo roles and argue that the UK preference for maintaining the‘teacher-educator-as-teacher’ role does not necessarily contradicta ‘teacher-educator-as-enquirer’ role. ‘‘Rather, it points to theimportance of building research, reflection and enquiry on whatteacher educators already perceive to be their own particularstrengths, namely maintaining a close and supportive relationshipwith students, ensuring a hands-on approach to teaching andlearning, and linking directly with schools’’ (Robinson andMcMillan, 2006, p. 335). Teacher educators thereby become activeplayers in ‘‘the advancement of pedagogical content knowledge[which] represents a form of the scholarship of discovery thatoverlaps with, and should be viewed as part of, the scholarship ofteaching’’ (Paulsen, 2001, p. 21).

The literature highlights the central nature of the ‘caring’ role,the vocational commitment model of teaching and that teachereducators ‘care’ for their student teachers as forming a criticalaspect of teacher educator knowledge (Bullough and Gitlin,1995; Robinson and McMillan, 2006; Cochran-Smith, 2006).Robinson and McMillan’s (2006, p. 333) research highlightedthat ‘‘many teacher educators highlighted a pastoral relationshipwith their students: ‘‘We care about the students’’. ‘‘Thisperspective of pastoral care was often linked with a sense ofresponsibility not only for the academic well being of students,but also for their socio-emotional health’’ (Robinson andMcMillan, 2006, p. 333).


Standards for teacher educators, which have been developed inthe US and Holland also provide some useful guidance on teachereducator knowledge, roles and tasks. The US standards, devised bythe Association of Teacher Educators in the US in an effort toincrease the professionalism of teacher educators, include (ATE,2008):

� teaching (demonstrating content and professional knowledgeand skills, researching on teaching);� cultural competence (and social justice promotion);� scholarship (engage in inquiry and contribute to scholarship that

expands the knowledge base related to teacher education);� professional development (inquire systematically into, reflect

on, and improve their own practice);� programme development (provide leadership in developing,

implementing and evaluating teacher education programmesthat are rigorous, relevant and grounded in theory, research, andbest practice);� public advocacy (serve as informed, constructive advocates for

high quality education for all students);� contribute to improving the teacher education profession;� vision (contribute to creating visions for teaching, learning, and

teacher education that take into account such issues astechnology, systemic thinking, and world views).

These US standards are broadly similar to Dutch standards thatwere devised in 1999 and revised in 2003 (Koster et al., 2005; Kosterand Dengerink, 2008), except that they do not include the last threeUS standards and they add two other standards—the selection offuture teachers, and the development of personal growth.

Standards and competences for teacher trainees are morewidely used, and have led to a number of criticisms, which Kosterand Dengerink (2008) suggest are also relevant to standards forteacher educators. The criticisms mainly concern their reductionistnature and failure to take the complexity and unpredictability ofteaching into account, and their leading to the de-professionalisa-tion of teaching. Cochran-Smith (2004, p. 7) argues that ‘‘anorganization of teacher education programmes that prescribesalignment, consensus, and consistency through bureaucratic andauthoritarian control is antithetical to learning, inquiry, and truedemocratic participation. Legislating a set of predefined standardsfor which teacher education programmes and prospective teachersare accountable in essence defines the learning of teachers in veryspecific ways’’. Koster and Dengerink (2008), however, argue thatthe broad nature of the Dutch Teacher educator standards addressthe issues raised by critics and argue that how the standards areused is critical. To prevent using the standard as a ‘tick list’, teachereducators in Holland ‘‘have to make every element more specificand to make it ‘concrete’ by reference to their own experiences andthe context in which they are working. . . . [the standard is] aninstrument for professional dialogue that encompasses thecomplexity of professional work’’ (Koster and Dengerink, 2008,p. 140). The author finds another useful role of standards—theybegin to raise the professionalism of teacher educators, who up tonow did not complete any professional training or were guided byany standards like other professions.

2. The review of the DTE in Uganda

In 2006, the author was invited by the Ministry of Educationand Sports (MoES) in Uganda to become involved in the conductingof a review of the DTE programme (MoES, 2006), which was fundedby Irish Aid. This article uses data presented in the review report, aswell as additional data collected by the author during the review,to explore issues concerning the education of the teacher educatorin Uganda.

2.1. Methodology

The review was conducted between July and October 2006 andincluded four data collection methods: documentary analyses;observations; interviews, and research diary. Documents analysedincluded: recent Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES) anddonor reports on various areas of the Education system in Ugandaand Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES); policy documents;and the available DTE curriculum documents, specifically, syllabi,instructional materials and past examination papers.

Observations were conducted at relevant institutions: theUniversity which offers the DTE programme; 15 Primary Teachers’Colleges; 20 Coordinating Centres (CCs) (every school in Uganda isattached to a centre, where a co-ordinating centre tutor [in-serviceteacher educator] is based), a National Teachers’ College [whichtrains secondary teachers]; three Private Universities, ten DistrictOffices; and 15 Primary Schools. Observations included observa-tions of facilities and activities taking place and also lessonobservations.

Interviews were held with relevant stakeholders, who included:DTE lecturers; DTE students; graduates of DTE currently workingas teacher educators at Primary Teachers’ Colleges (PTC); PTCprincipals and deputy principals; Ministry of Education and Sportspersonnel; lecturers at private universities; staff at NationalTeachers’ Colleges; Co-ordinating Centre Tutors; District EducationOfficers; District Inspectors; student teachers; and student tutors[teacher educators]. Interviews were semi-structured and soughtto access views on the DTE programme and how it could beimproved. Interviewees were asked about what was working well,what could be improved, why and how.

2.2. Review issues concerning the education of the teacher educator in

Uganda

For the purposes of exploring the key concern of this article –how are teacher educators prepared for their roles and tasks – thissection will use data that emerged concerning the following: theorientation, focus and content of the DTE curriculum; curriculumapproach; assessment strategies; implementation of the curricu-lum, in particular the instructional strategies used by the educatorsof the teacher educators as teachers and College Practice super-visors; and the role of research. It needs to be pointed out that thereview recommended that the programme become a Bachelors inTeacher Education (BTE), rather than a DTE, which was beingconsidered by the Government of Uganda at the time of the review.In 2008, MoES stipulated that the DTE be phased out and replacedwith a BTE.

The Review analysed the objectives and content of eachsyllabus in the DTE curriculum in an effort to evaluate issues ofoverloading, overlapping, nature of content and to explore theextent to which the content could enable student teachers torealize the key competences expected of graduates of theprogramme—see Section 1.1. The analysis found that 60% of theobjectives sought to develop student teacher educators’ pedagogi-cal knowledge, understanding and skills in Teacher Education.However, analysis of the curriculum content raises questions aboutthe appropriateness of the content to achieving these pedagogi-cally oriented objectives. It found that only 3% of the DTEcurriculum content focuses on teacher education pedagogy i.e.how to train student teachers to teach. See Table 1. 28% of thecurriculum content was concerned with pedagogy in primaryclassrooms i.e. how to teach topics in the primary classroom. SeeTable 2. However, data highlighted that this pedagogical contentwas neglected during the teaching of the programme. Interviewswith DTE students raised concerns about the neglect of thispedagogical content during the teaching of the programme. All

Table 1Number of course units (CUs) allocated to pedagogical content in the DTE curriculum.

Subjecta Total

CUs

CUs for pedagogy

content

Courses with pedagogical content

English Language Education 28 24 Teaching English Language Structure (grammar). Language acquisition, teaching and

learning. Teaching the basic language skills in Primary Schools. Production, selection,

use and maintenance of teaching materials in PTCs and Primary Schools. Use of prose in

the teaching of Language. The use of drama and poetry in the teaching of language.

Language testing.

Social Studies 28 7 Introduction to Methodology for SS I.

Advanced methodology in SS II.

Religious Studies Education 40 6 RE methods I, II, III, and IV.

Music Education 28 5 Music Education methods I and II.

Kiswahili 28 4 Methods of teaching Kiswahili.

Research and methods of teaching Kiswahili.

Local Language Education 28 10 Preparation for teaching Local Language; General approaches to teaching Local Language.

Teaching Local Language skills.

Assessment and evaluation in teaching Local Languages.

Professional Studies 33 33 Foundations of Education; Research in Education. Supervision, evaluation and teaching I/II.

Educational Technology. Educational Psychology. Curriculum Studies. Development Studies.

College practice I and II (10 CU). Research project report (5 CU).

ECE 28 28 ECE and development. Management of ECE Education. Methods and approaches for ECE

programmes. Language development and teaching in ECE. The teaching of reading in ECE.

The teaching of handwriting in ECE. Science and Health/PE/SSE/Mathematics/Art and

Crafts Education. Music Education. RE for ECE. PE for ECE.

Foundation Studies 28 28 Methods, Sociology/Philosophy/History of Education. Comparative Education. Educational

Psychology. Curriculum Studies. Educational Administration.

Science 52 10 Science Education I, II, III, and IV.

PE 30 28 Introduction to PE; Growth, Development and Exercise; Primary Games. Athletics I and II.

Micro-teaching I and II. Gymnastics I and II. Primary soccer, handball . . .

Mathematics 28 10 Mathematics Education and Methodology I and II.

Primary Mathematics teaching.

Agriculture 56 8 Agricultural Education and Economics I.

Agricultural Education and Extension.

Art and Design 58 4 Art Education (principles and methods of teaching) I and II.

Business Studies 56 0

Home Economics 58 4 Methods of teaching Home Economics I and II.

Technological Studies 56 0

Total 663 209

a The subjects are in the order in which they appear in the DTE curriculum.


students interviewed highlighted the need to have more pedagog-ical content: ‘‘The course is like school, we only learn content butnot how to train teachers’’; ‘‘We need less on theory and more onhow to teach the topics’’; ‘‘course not reaching methods anddepends on college practice; ‘‘Need pedagogy of PE and mathe-matics [student taking PE and maths]’’; ‘‘training is rathertheoretical . . . we are supposed to teach methods in PTCs andwe don’t learn it’’; ‘‘Have never used A/V aids in [course] but incolleges expected to use them’’; They only tell us to read theprimary curriculum, never see a demo lesson’’; and ‘‘Topics areovercrowded’’. Interviews with graduates of the programme andMinistry of Education personnel also reflected these views—‘‘theprogramme is far too theoretical with very little on how to trainquality teachers’’. An analysis of the syllabus content helps toexplain these comments.

The remainder of the content i.e. 72%, focused on subjectknowledge. This was different to Shulman’s (1987) contentknowledge, which he defines as the knowledge of the actualcontent to be taught, which for the DTE curriculum should be thecontent in the Primary Teacher Education curriculum. The contentwas mainly A level and some higher level content, for example, theAgriculture syllabus was more like a Diploma in Agriculture than aDiploma in training teachers to teach Agriculture in the primary

school. There was very little mention of Agriculture Education inthe syllabus. The overall finding emerging from the data was thelack of pedagogical focus of the curriculum.

Another issue that emerged concerned the actual subjects onthe DTE curriculum, presented in Section 1.1. The DTE includedseveral subjects, for example, Home Economics and BusinessStudies, which were not taught in primary schools or in PrimaryTeachers’ Colleges. Yet, it did not include subjects, content areas,and programmes that have been introduced in primary schools inUganda in recent years: Guidance and Counselling; ICT; IntegratedProduction Skills, community and parental involvement; entre-preneurship; probation programme for newly qualified teachers;HIV/AIDS and gender mainstreaming; and research. These areas, ifincluded, would meet the needs of the Ugandan context. Guidanceand Counselling is compulsory in all primary schools in Uganda—itincludes Psycho-Social and Peace Education, which seeks, inparticular to support children attending schools in war affectedregions. Entrepreneurship emerges from the Government’s focuson poverty alleviation and development. Community and parentalinvolvement emerged from numerous initiatives in Uganda inrecent years to develop their involvement in the education of theirchildren. Probation refers to a newly devised two-year inductionprogramme for newly qualified primary teachers, which is being

Table 2Number of pedagogy of Teacher Education topics in DTE syllabuses.

Subject No. of

topicsa

No. of TE

pedagogy topics

Examples of topics on TE pedagogy

English Language Education 164 8 Techniques of teaching speech in PTCs and Primary Schools. Implications of the above

[grammar] to language teaching in PTCs and Primary Schools. Language in PTCs

and Primary Schools.

Social Studies 146 8 General aims and objectives of SS programmes in schools and PTCs. Introduction to the

teaching of Social Studies in Primary Schools and PTCs.

Religious Studies Education 234 None

Music Education 222 17 Objectives of teaching Music in PTCs and Primary Schools. Analysis of Primary School

Music and PTC Music syllabus considering: content, methods, class organisation, general

approach, equipment/resources.

Kiswahili 50 9 The PTE Kiswahili syllabus. Schemes and lesson plans, the use of instructional materials.

Teaching the basic language skills in PTCs.

Local Language Education 164 3 The PTE Local Language syllabus.

Professional Studies 296 5 The process of college practice. Teaching profession, learning, teaching and tutoring.

Historical developments of Teacher Education in Uganda. Organisation and analysis of

Primary School PTC curriculum and preparations for School Practice.

ECE 223 4 Training of pre-primary and Lower Primary teachers. Interpretation of ECE SS syllabus i.e.

PTC, Lower Primary.

Foundation Studies 207 5 Curriculum implementation at the PTC and Primary Schools. The role of Primary Education

and Teacher Education in development. Aims and objectives for higher institutes in Uganda.

Current trends in PTC and Primary School curriculum. The areas of possible innovation

in the PTC and Primary School.

Science 322 1 Objectives of Science Education in Primary Education and Teacher Education.

PE 199 17 Micro-teaching using PTC students.

Curriculum and methods of teaching PE in PTCs (16 topics).

Mathematics 129 2 The Maths curriculum both at Primary School and PTC.

The use of textbooks and resources in the teaching of Mathematics both at Primary

School and PTC.

Agriculture 402 2 Agriculture in Primary Schools and PTCs.

The primary and college syllabuses in Agriculture.

Art and Design 117 9 Introduction to the PTC syllabus and preparation to college practice in relation to teaching

resources. Methods of teaching; schemes of work. Lesson plan. Evaluation and assessment

(5) and Art Education I and II.

Business Studies 316 0

Home Economics 203 6 Lesson plans (clear and informative), school/college practice, expectations of student teachers.

Management of Home Economics Department (3).

Technological Studies 150 0

Total 3544 96

a Each listed topic under sections was counted.


piloted in 2009. Teacher educators in Uganda will be required toprovide support to this programme, thus the skills they need forthis must be developed during the BTE programme.

In light of the main finding of the review, the lack of pedagogicalfocus of the curriculum, which it pointed out as the main reason forthe DTE programme’s failure to produce graduates who haveacquired the competences of an effective teacher educator, thereview recommended the inclusion of more pedagogical contentknowledge in all syllabi and also the addition of a new subject,Generic teacher education approaches, skills and strategies. Thelatter would not detract from the critical role of contentknowledge, but would seek to focus the educators of the teachereducators on preparing the DTE student teacher educators toeffectively teach the content i.e. the PTE certificate curriculum, inPTCs. This focus would also address the findings regarding thedominant approach to teaching content knowledge that emergedfrom lesson observations, rote teaching and learning, which will bepresented later in this section. The recommendation to includeGeneric teacher education methodology as a separate subject alsoseeks to further address the current lack of focus in the DTE indeveloping student teacher educators’ skills in teacher educationpedagogy. Ultimately, this seeks to enable them to train studentteachers who will be able to effectively bring about learning inprimary schools.

Related to the recommendation that more focus be placed onpedagogical knowledge is the recommendation that each course/module in syllabuses should include outcomes and competences tobe achieved. Two reasons explain this recommendation. Firstly, itwould ensure that the BTE is aligned with the primary and primaryteacher education curricula, currently being revised, and whichhave opted for competences and outcomes. Secondly, it wouldenable the implementation of one of the main review findings—theneed for the BTE to focus on Teacher Education pedagogy toaddress the current focus in the DTE programme on thememorization of subject knowledge. Specifying pedagogicallyoriented outcomes and competences would focus students’attention on pedagogy. Also relevant here is the recommendationthat the outcomes and competences should not be narrowlyfocused (MoES, 2006).

Another aspect of the programme reviewed were the assess-ment approaches and strategies used. A key part of curriculum isassessment and the general consensus in the literature, supportedby research findings, is the effectiveness of using formative andsummative assessment tools. There is also agreement that effectivepractices involve using a variety of assessment strategies,including continuous assessment activities and examinations, toassess learning and application of learning. The current DTEcurriculum states that assessment will be divided between


examinations and continuous assessment on a 50:50 ratio.However, interviews indicate that this ratio has not beenimplemented and that examinations are the main form ofassessment—‘‘Examination oriented, tend to cram as things comein the last moment before exams’’ (DTE student). An analysis of thequestions in examination papers highlighted that the questionsmainly tested memory skills and focused on content knowledge.For example, an analysis of 39 examination papers, mainly the2005/2006 papers for all semester examinations, further supportsthe findings presented earlier concerning the neglect of TeacherEducation pedagogy in the DTE curriculum. It found that only 20questions out of a total of 231 questions, 9%, were focused onteacher education pedagogy and most of these questions were inthe Professional Studies papers. All other questions merely testedstudents’ capacity to recall subject knowledge. The main reasonsthat emerged from the review to explain this was the lack ofunderstanding among DTE lecturers about setting and markingcontinuous assessment assignments and the additional workloadinvolved. Another reason can also explain this—the methodologyused to teach the content is critical. Lesson observationshighlighted that the educators of teacher educators only usedrote methods in their teaching on the DTE programme, presentinginformation, which students note in notebooks, and then memo-rise for examinations. The failure of DTE lecturers to use a variety ofinstructional strategies does not enable the development ofstudent teacher educator’s content knowledge skills, such asanalysis and application, which are critical. Issues concerningCollege Practice in the preparation of Ugandan teacher educatorsalso raised issues concerning the teaching capacities DTE lecturers.

Currently in the DTE programme, student teacher educatorscomplete, at the end of years I and II, two six-week blocks ofCollege practice as a teacher educator [tutor] in a primary teachers’college. Field visits indicated that this comprises of one weekpreparation and five weeks’ college practice. Student teachereducators are observed by DTE lecturers four times during thepractice. The college practice has two components—studentteacher educators teaching PTE certificate student teachers toteach primary pupils and supervising them teaching in primaryschools on School Practice. Observations during field visits for thereview highlighted that DTE student teacher educators’ teachingwas exclusively rote teaching of content knowledge, mostlyunrelated to the primary curriculum, with no focus on trainingstudent teachers to teach and bring about learning. Also, themaximum number of lessons taught by the DTE student teachereducators at PTCs during college practice was 13, which is anaverage of 2.6 lessons per week. This short amount of actual‘practice’ will not enable the development of DTE students’ teachereducation pedagogical skills. The review recommended thatstudent teacher educators should teach at least eight differentlessons per week. Of critical importance is that student teachereducators seek to use methods other than ‘chalk and talk’ duringthese eight lessons and that the lessons seek to include a focus ontraining student teachers to develop their teaching skills andstrategies.

Another explanation for the reliance on the rote teaching ofsubject knowledge observed among student teacher educatorsduring College Practice also emerged. Observation of DTE lecturers’feedback to student teacher educators on their performance asteaching practice supervisors with student teachers, and anevaluation of the DTE lecturers’ observation forms, indicates thatDTE lecturers consider lessons in primary classrooms using roteteaching and learning effective. All of the lessons, which the authorobserved in primary schools taught by student teachers, whom thestudent teacher educators supervised, mainly used rote teachingand learning. Yet, the student teacher educators did not commenton the failure of the student teachers to use different methods to

support primary pupils’ learning. The DTE lecturers supervisingthem did not comment on this either and indicated that they wereperforming well, based on their completion of the lessonobservation forms. Also, observations of feedback to studentteacher educators on their performance teaching student teachersin the PTC are relevant here—the DTE lecturers never commentedwhen their student teacher educators taught lessons at PTCs thatdid not seek to develop student teachers’ pedagogical skills andthat only used rote methods. The revised DTE curriculum, thereview recommended, should address this. This raises one of thefactors most critical to the successful implementation of therevised curriculum, the capacity of the current DTE lecturers, inlight of their inadequate pedagogical capacities to use methodsother than rote teaching and the fact that many have no primaryteaching qualifications or experience, to teach and supervisestudents in the pedagogically focused revised DTE curriculum.

These findings have implications for the training of lecturersteaching on the DTE programme. They also raise the question—who will educate the educators of the teacher educators? Thereview recommended that College Practice supervisors shouldideally have a Primary Education background and PTC teachereducator experience, and at least be a professionally trainedteacher educator. This experience would provide them with a baseupon which to develop their teacher education pedagogical skills,to enable them to provide effective supervision support to studentteacher educators. They suggested redeployment of those lecturerswho do not have this background to other courses in the universityand then recruitment of new lecturers with this background andexperience to replace these. The review also recommended that allDTE lecturers must be trained in the implementation of the revisedPTE certificate curriculum, enabling them to adequately supportstudent teacher educators’ School Practice observations. It alsoindicated that DTE lecturers require training in using a variety ofinstructional strategies to bring about learning, and the rationalefor using these rather than relying on rote learning, and alsotraining on assessment, in particular the setting of variouscontinuous assessment assignments.

Related to effective teaching and learning strategies areinstructional and reference materials. The review highlightedthe lack of instructional materials and resources available to DTEstudents. The University library had many education texts andreports, however most were at least twenty years old. Students donot have access to the Internet. PTC libraries’ stock was similarlyinadequate. None of the libraries enabled effective research andscholarship. Interviews with teacher educators for the reviewhighlighted this as one of the main reasons for their failure toengage in research. The review recommended the addressing ofthis through seeking funding to purchase more recently publishedreference and Education books and the devising of studentmodules for the BTE syllabi that would include research findingsrelevant to their subject areas. The library should also stock all PTEcertificate reference books, instructional materials, materials forteaching practicals, primary school textbooks and non-textbookmaterials. The lack of reference books leads to the final major issuethat emerged, which concerns the role of research in teachereducator preparation in Uganda.

The Ministry of Education and Sports Strategic Plan (MoES,2005, p. 21) highlights the importance of research and one of itsstrategies is to ‘‘Promote research [in Universities], participatoryapplied research, and publications’’. It suggests that the NationalCouncil for Higher Education in Uganda will promote this.Currently, there is a research module in the DTE curriculum i.e.module DPS 224, one of the courses in the recess term—‘‘Submission of a supervised research project report in a selectedarea of study in professional subjects or teaching subject’’ (p. 102).However, little time is devoted to the research project and student


teacher educators highlighted that the supervision of their projectswas inadequate—‘‘I was unable to meet with my supervisor, afterour initial meeting, as he was always too busy. I didn’t know how towrite the project but did the best I could’’, ‘‘I looked up someinformation in library and used this, I didn’t do any interviews orquestionnaires as they ask us to’’. Also, the curriculum does notinclude any content on developing students’ research skills or onthe processes for supervising research projects. In order to fosterteacher educators’ lifelong learning capacities and their ability tocontinuously improve their training practices, it is important todevelop their own research skills and research supervision skills.Related to research is reflective practice, which can be used as aresearch tool. The Review found that the DTE programme did notinclude any preparation for student teacher educators ondeveloping their skills as reflective practitioners–‘‘I’m not surewhat this is, we never did it during the course’’ (DTE graduate,August 2006). The neglect of the research aspects of the DTEprogramme were highlighted in 2007/2008, when all teachereducators in Uganda completed a one-year part-time Certificate inTeacher Education Proficiency (C-TEP), a USAID funded pro-gramme, provided by the University offering the DTE, the AgaKhan Institute in Tanzania, and the Ministry of Education andSports in Uganda. A considerable amount of time had to be devotedto developing teacher educators’ research skills, to enable them tocomplete an action research project that formed part of theassessment of the C-TEP programme. The author’s involvement inthis programme highlighted teacher educators almost completelack of research skills, experience and expertise. It highlighted,however, teacher educators’ keen interest in developing theirresearch skills and conducting research into their practice.

3. Implications for teacher education in Uganda

Various MoES reports (MoES, 2003a,b, 2005) and the review ofthe DTE programme in Uganda highlight that the programme iscurrently ineffective, as it does not develop its graduates’ capacityto effectively train primary teachers to successfully bring aboutlearning in primary classrooms in Uganda. The main reason forthis, emerging from the review data, is that the DTE curriculumcontent is subject/discipline knowledge focused and that thisknowledge is mostly unrelated to the content that the studentteacher educator would be required to teach in Primary Teachers’Colleges, specifically, the Primary Teacher Education curriculum.To address this, the revised DTE/BTE programme should focusmore on teacher education pedagogical knowledge. This reflectsthe findings of Abell’s (1997) study of doctoral programmes forteacher educators in the US, which found that the programmes forScience teacher educators neglected to teach students aboutScience teacher education focused on subject knowledge.

Teacher educators in Uganda, all of whom complete the DTEprogramme, are currently not being adequately prepared to use avariety of teacher education strategies to develop student teachers’capacities to successfully implement the primary curriculum. Thereview suggests that this knowledge is critical to the developmentof an effective teacher educator in Uganda, which reflects one ofthe findings of Murray and Male’s (2005) study of teachereducators in the UK. Shulman’s (1987) three pronged model ofteacher knowledge would enable a focusing on pedagogicalknowledge, both pedagogical content knowledge and generalpedagogic knowledge, which for teacher educators refers to thewide variety of teacher education approaches, skills and strategiesthat can be used by teacher educators of all disciplines andsubjects, to effectively bring about learning. This model couldusefully inform the devising of the revised DTE/new BTEcurriculum. The pedagogical focus also has implications forassessment, which should include the use of a variety of formative

and summative assessments that seek to consolidate learning,further develop skills and provide a summative assessment of whathas been learned. It needs to be pointed out, here, however, that afocus on pedagogy does not seek to demote the critical role ofcontent knowledge, there are two relevant issues here—thecontent and how it is taught, thus the content is related topedagogy. The content needs to include content that the studentteacher educator will be required to teach, specifically, the primaryand Primary Teacher Education Certificate curriculum [thecurriculum taught in PTCs], and relevant other content that willenable them to develop their understanding of this content.

The BTE programme ultimately seeks to enable the improve-ment of the quality of primary education in Uganda and lead toimproved learning outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy,through training pedagogically effective teacher educators tosuccessfully train primary teachers to bring about learning. Theliterature review highlighted that a contextual teaching andlearning conceptualization of quality is emerging as useful toenabling this. This conceptualization is related to the Ugandanconceptualization of quality, as evident in the Education SectorStrategic Plan—‘‘Above all, it [ESSP] aims at improving the qualityof Education—what participants learn and how they learn’’ (MoES,2007, p. 5). The conceptualisation can usefully inform the devisingof the new BTE programme in Uganda and is related to Shulman(1987) model of teacher knowledge, which enables a focus onteaching and learning, through its inclusion of pedagogy. The roleof context in this conceptualization of quality is particularlyrelevant to the education of teacher educators in Uganda.

The findings from the review highlighted the importance of theUgandan context in determining areas to be included in the BTEcurriculum. New areas, specific to Uganda, include Guidance andCounselling, entrepreneurship, community involvement andprobation curriculum. The placing of the Ugandan contextcentre-stage can also usefully enable international best practicesto inform the knowledge that effective teacher educators inUganda require. During the review of the DTE programme, thereviewers’ accessing of data was particularly concerned withgathering contextual information, and this enabled them to ensurethat their recommendations for the BTE programme, wereimplementable within the ‘classroots’ realities in PTCs in Uganda,for example, available resources. This enabled the addressing ofissues of transfer. For example, the decision to use competencesand outcomes in the BTE curriculum was based on their potentialto focus the programme on the development of student teachers’knowledge and skills of teacher education, rather than subjectknowledge. Also, the Ugandan Ministry of Education and Sportssought to ensure alignment between the primary, primary teachereducation certificate, and the revised DTE/BTE curricula, with thelatter two revised curricula already including competences andoutcomes.

Guidance and Counselling, presented in the previous paragraphas one of the Ugandan contextual subject areas, is related to thevocational aspect of a teacher educator’s role and to teachereducator knowledge. The objectives and competences presented inSection 1.1 include this area. They also highlight the importance ofother critical teacher educator knowledge, that needs to beincluded in the revised DTE, and which emerged from the reviewdata: pedagogical knowledge, both primary education and primaryteacher education pedagogical knowledge, content knowledgerelated to the primary and primary teacher education curricula,knowledge of instructional materials and assessment strategies,supervision, engagement with the community and mobilisation ofcommunities, and professional ethics. To create a new BTEprogramme effective in developing competent teacher educators,who can successfully enable student teachers to bring aboutlearning in primary schools, the programme should include these


key knowledge areas in the revised curriculum and enable thedevelopment of student teachers’ skills in carrying out relatedtasks and roles.

A key teacher educator task is supervision of College practice.The data that emerged during the observation of the supervision ofstudent teacher educators teaching in PTCs and supervisingstudent teachers on teaching practice, highlights the critical roleof supervision in the new BTE programme. It must enable studentteacher educators to develop effective supervision and mentoringskills to enable them to carry out the key responsibilities of theseroles. This requires specific skills of mentoring and also profes-sional knowledge of teaching. The role of professional knowledgewas highlighted by the consideration by DTE lecturers of contentfocused lessons, in which the main method used was rote learning,as being effective. There was no effort made by student teachereducators to support student teachers’ development of profes-sional practices, in particular, the use of a variety of strategies tobring about learning among their primary pupils. One explanationfor this is the lack of focus on this aspect of a teacher educator’ssupervision responsibilities. Another explanation, concerning thepedagogical capacities and professional background of DTElecturers also emerged and will be discussed later.

Another key task and role for student teacher educators inUganda, the carrying out of research and the role of teachereducator as enquirer, is also relevant to their preparation. Cochran-Smith (2003) highlights the emergence of a trend by teachereducators to publish accounts of their reflections into their practiceand their own practitioner research and efforts to use these toimprove their practices and to engage with issues and tensionsinherent in their work. This indicates the emerging critical role ofreflective practice and practitioner research among teachereducators in Western countries. However, in Uganda, theseactivities need to be developed. Their inclusion in the BTEcurriculum would be a very useful first step as it would enablestudent teacher educators to develop these skills. Research isincluded in the DTE curriculum and it includes action research,however, the review highlighted weaknesses in the implementa-tion of this component of the DTE programme. The review alsohighlighted the usefulness, in particular, of action research andenquiry oriented research skills and projects, which enablesteacher educators to conduct research into their own practice. Thistype of research, which is grounded in practical experience as aprimary teacher and primary teacher educator, enriches theirteaching. The majority of entrants to the DTE programme haveprimary teaching experience. If the graduates of the BTEprogramme successfully develop their research skills and seethe value of research to their professional development, they willbegin to have a positive impact on the current under valued role ofresearch in PTCs.

The Review found that teacher educators in Uganda, thoughthey are required to carry out a research project, during their DTEprogramme, do not conduct research once they are employed asteacher educators. There are a number of explanations for this.Firstly, the lack of accessible and recently published researchreports, books and materials, to inform research. Secondly,research is not high on the agenda of educating student teachersat the PTCs—teacher educators are not provided with time orsupport to conduct research. Thirdly, the lack of training forteacher educators during their DTE programme on using andconducting research to inform and improve their practices. Theseissues can be addressed. Firstly, the BTE programme managersshould lobby the Ministry of Education and Sports and donors tofund the purchase of updated research resources for their libraryand to provide Internet access to students in the library to facilitateresearch. Secondly, a focus on developing student teachereducators’ research skills during the BTE programme will enable

the development of their research skills which can enable them toconduct research once employed as teacher educators in PTCs.Thirdly, supporting and encouraging teacher educators at PTCs toresearch is being realised already in current efforts to raise theprofile of research at PTCs, in an effort to support theimplementation of the research targets in the ESSP. Of particularimportance was the year long certificate in teacher educationproficiency (C-TEP) course that all teacher educators completed in2008. This certificate was supported by the Ministry of Educationand Sports and highlighted their interest in enabling teachereducators to conduct research, mainly for their own professionaldevelopment. Thus, the management at PTCs, who ensured thatteacher educators found time to complete the research projects fortheir C-TEP programme, will continue to be supported by theMinistry to facilitate research. Teacher Educators will always bebusy, however, if supported by management, they will beencouraged to also include research in their busy schedules. Alsocritical to enabling the developing of research skills during the BTEis the capacity of the educators of teacher educators to developtheir student teacher educators’ research skills. Currently, theircapacity in this area is inadequate and they require training todevelop it. This has led to a recent initiative, supported by Irish Aid,to develop the research capacity of the DTE lecturers. It involvesthe conducting of collaborative research projects with universitiesin Ireland and the university where the BTE lecturers teach.

The research capacities of the educators of teacher educatorsraise another capacity gap among DTE lecturers relevant to theimplementation of a pedagogically focused BTE curriculum—thecapacity of those who train the teacher educators to effectivelydevelop the teacher education pedagogical capacities of theirstudent teacher educators. If the BTE programme, which will bedevised, based on the recommendations in the review, is to besuccessfully implemented and lead to the development of effectiveteacher educators, considerable training, in particular on peda-gogical knowledge and skills, needs to be provided to the lecturerswho will teach on the BTE programme. Currently, the DTE lecturersare mainly using rote methods, focusing on subject knowledge andproviding inadequate support to student teacher educators,particularly in the development of their pedagogical capacities,as they supervise student teachers on teaching practice. CollegePractice requires a mentoring type support, which is impossible ifthere is a knowledge and professional background vacuum. Thisraises issues concerning professionalism, in light of the reviewdata, which highlighted that many DTE lecturers’ do not havepractical experience as primary teachers and/or primary teachereducators. The question needs to be asked—which other profes-sionals are trained by people who have no experience in thatprofession, for example, are doctors trained by lecturers with nobackground in medicine? To address the pedagogical capacities ofthe educators of the teacher educators, it is important to considerredeploying those with no teaching experience and/or requestingthem to complete an intensive primary teacher educationprogramme, which includes supervised teaching practice. Theobjectives and competences suggest that ‘‘the main goal of theprogramme is to produce pedagogically sound teacher educators,who can effectively train student teachers to become competentteachers able to bring about successful learning’’ (MoES, 2006, p.77). This cannot be achieved unless the educators of the teachereducators are themselves pedagogically sound teacher educators.

4. International implications and conclusion

Five main messages for teacher educators in other developingcountries and those in Western countries, emerged from thisstudy. The first main message concerns teacher educatorknowledge. Pedagogical knowledge emerged as critical teacher


educator knowledge. Shulman’s (1987) teacher knowledge modelcan usefully inform teacher educator knowledge and enable a focuson teacher education pedagogical knowledge, both pedagogicalcontent knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge. Related tothis is the second message, which highlights the role of context andthe need to take contextual realities into account when educatingthe teacher educator. In Uganda, subject areas critical to thecontext, such as Guidance and Counselling, emerged as necessaryto educating the teacher educator. Taking contextual realities intoaccount also enables the making use of international best practicesand research findings, through enabling the addressing issues oftransfer that blind application brings about. The focus onpedagogical knowledge and context highlight the usefulness ofO’Sullivan’s (2006) conceptualization of quality as contextualteaching and learning processes in informing teacher educationprogrammes that will ultimately enable the improvement ofquality in primary education.

Context leads into the third message, which concerns one of thekey roles and tasks of teacher educators that emerged, that ofsupervisor. This role is important as supporting student teachersduring teaching practice are a critical role of all teacher educators.This role requires them to have professional knowledge and to useit to guide student teachers, in particular, concerning the use ofvarious instructional strategies to most effectively bring aboutlearning.

The fourth message is related to another role and to teachereducator preparation—the teacher educator as researcher andenquirer (Cochran-Smith, 2003). Practitioner research and reflec-tive practice is critical to the professional development of teachereducators and should be supported, through professional training,if required, and the provision of adequate time and resources, inparticular reference materials. In light of lack of specificprogramme to prepare teacher educators in other countries, likethe BTE in Uganda, the role of research and enquiry is key tosupporting teacher educator preparation and professional devel-opment. This leads into the final message, the need to providestructured professional development support to new teachereducators, which would include some participation in courses,mentoring by senior staff and support with conducting research.Capacity of the educators of the teacher educators in Uganda,raised in this article, highlight the need to focus on the capacity ofthe teacher educator mentors if choosing to adopt such aprogramme to support teacher educators’ professional develop-ment.

Finally, the teacher educator is critical to quality education andthe ultimate purpose of educating the teacher educator needs to beplaced at the top of the education agenda—the provision ofeffective and high quality education to primary school children. Ifteacher educators successfully prepare teachers, these teacherswill then bring about effective learning in primary classrooms. Thisis particularly critical to developing countries.

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