Papua New Guinea gained its independence from Australia in 1975. However, as a developing nation, PNG has continued to depend on external assistance for its development programs. Extensive foreign aid has been expended primarily to enhance the quality of education. To explore the issue of foreign aid and its impact on PNG as a postcolonial society, the dependency and postcolonial theories were adopted to guide the discussion. The theorist Beeby argues that in order to improve the quality of education, the level of general education and training of teachers in developing countries must be raised. This has occurred in PNG but it has not significantly enhanced the quality of education. Consequently, the issue explored concerns the type of educational change occurring in PNG primary teachers’ colleges (PTCs) and its leadership. Globalization processes were adopted to guide the exploration of the education reform and its impact on the quality of education in primary teacher education in PNG. The following questions focused the content of the study:1. What is the quality of education being experienced in the Catholic Primary Teachers’ Colleges? 2. What are the lecturers’, students’, and recent graduates’ perceptions of the recent Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project innovations occurring in the teachers’ colleges? 3. How is the curriculum in the teachers’ colleges perceived by the lecturers, students and recent graduates? 4. How is leadership demonstrated in the three Catholic Primary Teachers’ Colleges? The epistemological framework of the research was constructionism adopting an interpretivist approach. The specific interpretivist perspective employed was symbolic interactionism because symbolic interactionism places emphasis on the importance of understanding, interpretation and meaning. A case study approach was adopted as the methodology for this research because of the nature of the research purpose. This study involved a total of 166 participants consisting of staff and students from the three Catholic primary teachers’ colleges, representatives from the Catholic Church, National Department of Education (NDOE), Primary and Secondary Teacher Education Project (PASTEP) and other education officers. The data was gathered through a variety of methods including in-depth interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and documentary analysis. The major conclusions that emerged from this study revealed that educational change in primary teacher education has been implemented. However, the study concluded that the quality of leadership demonstrated to lead the educational change was disappointing. Inadequate leadership at the administration and curriculum levels had a negative influence on the quality of education. Achieving quality education was also hampered by inadequate funding, scarcity of resources and inappropriate infrastructure in all the institutions. The two-year trimester program has improved access and quantity but at the expense of quality. To assist primary teacher education implement the reform agenda, foreign aid was required. PASTEP was introduced and the contribution made by PASTEP was substantial. However, the study concluded that some of the strategies adopted by PASTEP to conduct its programs were questionable because there was evidence of hegemonic and colonial practices found among some of its workforce. In accepting foreign aid projects, PNG needs to establish strategies to ensure equitable partnerships with all stakeholders for sustainable development in education. In this respect, the findings of this study may serve as a guide for future decisions about educational leadership, curriculum innovation, donor funding agencies and policy generation.

This thesis reports the findings of a research study conducted in an initial primary teacher education college in Dublin, exploring how teacher education students experienced and constructed meaning from a pre-service RE course which recognized the importance of a focus on their inner lives. The study, which adopted a qualitative interpretive approach, was conducted using semi-structured interviews with twelve past students from a recently-graduated year group of one hundred students. The study hoped to uncover how a focus on the inner life was taken up by the research participants in relation to their personal and professional wellbeing and their role as educators in general and religious educators in particular. While it did not seek to generalise as a result of the findings, confined as it is by time and circumstance, nevertheless aspects deemed worthwhile by the research participants may also be deemed worthwhile by the reader and indeed may not be confined to the domain of RE. The findings have been framed generally against the three themes of ‘particularity’, ‘inner-ness’ and ‘ongoing-ness’. The theme of ‘particularity’ relates to the participants’ epistemological journey, as it is concerned with how concrete elements of the course supported inner life work. The theme of ‘inner-ness’ relates to the participants’ ontological journey, as it is concerned with how participants experienced and made meaning from the space provided by the course for inner life work. The theme of ‘ongoingness’ relates to the total RE journey from primary and secondary school to college and into their teaching lives and its impact on participants’ inner lives. What is clear from participants’ responses is that the RE course, and particularly the elements of the RE course that had a focus on the inner life, had a significant impact on participants’ identity, both personal and professional, at an important stage of their development and personal story. The study demonstrates the importance of inner life work for teacher education students and contributes a level of insight into how students appropriate and construct meaning from a created and creative space that supports a focus on that inner life.

Abstract My aim was to study gendered structures and processes and the challenges arising from them in primary teacher education. The topic was studied from structural and from agency-based and processual perspectives. The special tools used in the analyses consisted of culturally produced differences and asymmetry and the symbolic meanings given to them. The study included historical and contemporary parts. The historical part of the study acquired its focus through the structures of the first Finnish Teacher Seminar and through three annual curricula of primary teacher education in Oulu. Data for the contemporary analyses were collected during a pedagogic development project carried out at the Oulu Department of Teacher Education in the years 1988–1996 The most visible components of the gender system identifiable in the structures of the first Finnish Teacher Seminar were the following: – different aims for personal growth – sex- and grade-based division of prospective teachers: female teachers for girls of all ages and small boys, male teachers for boys aged 10 or more – differences in study subjects; especially in physical education, handicraft and pedagog – everyday chores and pedagogical tasks of the student – moral code and normative contro – different enrolment requirements The sex-related differences in the first curriculum of the Oulu College of Teacher Education were surprisingly similar to the differences seen in the first Finnish Teacher Seminar. The academic curricula proved to be ostensibly gender-neutral. But the research findings showed, in accordance with several other research findings, that formal neutrality does not eliminate institutionalised gendered features or gendered perspectives for personal and/or professional development. On the basis of the findings, the following aspects of the gender system and gender contracts in contemporary primary teacher education in Oulu could be identified: – Almost without exception, the students qualifying in the education of the first two forms were female. – Female students qualified in various subjects taught in primary school while male students rather tended to acquire their qualifications according to a more personal orientation. Their special qualifications were mostly physical education and technical work. – There was a tendency among the student teachers to notice boys differently from girls and to experience boys as more challenging, and to – interpret pupils’ school achievements in sex-related ways. This tendency was also shared by te pupils.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Suzete Lourenco Buque.pdf: 1683443 bytes, checksum: 0b1d4d9292c1a0c7c8da4cec2977d394 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-07-28 / The present dissertation has as its research object the tutorial process in the primary teacher distance education course administered by the Institute for the Improvement of Teachers (IAP), in a case study in the District of Chibuto, Gaza Province. The objective of the research is the analysis of the pedagogical relations established between tutor and course participants, and develop, from the study of this practice, improvements for future courses and pedagogical actions related to EAD (Distance Education). It is also an objective of this dissertation to suggest some innovations in the ways course participants are accompanied. The role of the tutor in accompanying course participants is vital for them not to feel isolated and to obtain good study results. In this research the qualitative approach was adopted and the main focus was on the information provided by the persons involved in the process, such as course participants, tutors and managers. A theoretical framework was chosen which comprises the fundamentals of Distance Education, Teaching- learning Theory and Pedagogy. The results of the research permit me to conclude that the poor interaction observed in the relations between tutors and course participants and between the latter themselves is influenced by various factors, such as: tutorial articulation scheme; tutors profile; course regulations; prescriptive character of the tutor s manual; lack of financial conditions of the course participants. It is my opinion that opting for the use of the computer and internet (using solar panels as the energy source) could contribute to improve these relations, while at the same time reducing the distances the course participants have to travel to get to the Pedagogical Nucleus / O Presente trabalho tem como objecto de estudo o processo de tutoria no curso de formação de professores primários dado pelo Instituto de Aperfeiçoamento de Professores (IAP) num estudo de caso no distrito de Chibuto, província de Gaza. O objectivo da pesquisa é analisar a relação pedagógica que se estabelece entre tutor e cursistas e extrair dessas práticas, melhorias para os futuros cursos e acções pedagógicas ligadas a EAD. É ainda objectivo deste trabalho sugerir algumas inovações no acompanhamento dos cursistas. O papel do tutor no acompanhamento dos cursistas é vital para que estes não se sintam isolados e tenham o melhor resultado em seus estudos. Nesta pesquisa foi adoptada a abordagem qualitativa, dando-se muita importância às informações trazidas pelos intervenientes no processo, como os cursistas, tutores e gestores. Optou-se por um quadro teórico que abarca fundamentos de EAD, Didáctica e Pedagogia. Os resultados da pesquisa permitiram-me concluir que a fraca interacção que se verifica na relação entre tutores e cursistas e cursistas entre si é influenciada por vários factores como: esquema montado para a articulação da tutoria, perfil dos tutores, regulamento do curso, carácter prescritivo do manual do tutor e condições financeiras dos cursistas. Julga-se que a opção pelo uso do computador ligado a internet (recorrendo a painéis solares como fonte de energia eléctrica) pode contribuir para melhorar essa relação e ao mesmo tempo diminuir as distâncias que os cursistas percorrem para chegar ao núcleo Pedagógico

The purposes of this study are to (1) identify and classify the needs of pre-service primary teacher education in Cross River State, Nigeria; (2) establish a priority of identified needs by perceived importance; and (3) propose a model for the preparation of primary teachers in Cross River State, Nigeria, based upon the needs identified.