TY - JOUR
T1 - Increasing the supply of secondary teachers in sub-Saharan Africa
T2 - A stakeholder assessment of policy options in six countries
AU - DeJaeghere, Joan G.
AU - Chapman, David W.
AU - Mulkeen, Aidan
N1 - Copyright:
Copyright 2006 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006/9/1
Y1 - 2006/9/1
N2 - Over the next decade many countries of sub-Saharan Africa will face a demand for qualified secondary school teachers that current systems for teacher recruitment, training, deployment and retention will be unable to meet. While strategies for increasing teacher supply to meet this shortage have been suggested, less attention has been given to investigating the acceptability of these potential solutions by those educators closest to the school and classroom level and who often serve as gatekeepers to policy implementation. Kingdon's multiple streams model is the framework used in this study to assess the feasibility of key strategies widely offered as possible solutions to resolve the projected teacher shortage. This study investigated the responses of 114 secondary school teachers, headteachers and education officials across six countries to policy options for increasing teacher supply. While none of the groups supported options to increase the supply through changed teacher training, there was support among all three groups for options that affected retention, including increased in-service training and distance education, more mentorship for new teachers and more opportunities for teachers to network with each other. These findings suggest that policy-makers in sub-Saharan African countries need to build political support among education stakeholders to find the most feasible and viable solutions to address the large teacher shortages through both increasing supply and retention.
AB - Over the next decade many countries of sub-Saharan Africa will face a demand for qualified secondary school teachers that current systems for teacher recruitment, training, deployment and retention will be unable to meet. While strategies for increasing teacher supply to meet this shortage have been suggested, less attention has been given to investigating the acceptability of these potential solutions by those educators closest to the school and classroom level and who often serve as gatekeepers to policy implementation. Kingdon's multiple streams model is the framework used in this study to assess the feasibility of key strategies widely offered as possible solutions to resolve the projected teacher shortage. This study investigated the responses of 114 secondary school teachers, headteachers and education officials across six countries to policy options for increasing teacher supply. While none of the groups supported options to increase the supply through changed teacher training, there was support among all three groups for options that affected retention, including increased in-service training and distance education, more mentorship for new teachers and more opportunities for teachers to network with each other. These findings suggest that policy-makers in sub-Saharan African countries need to build political support among education stakeholders to find the most feasible and viable solutions to address the large teacher shortages through both increasing supply and retention.
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U2 - 10.1080/02680930600866116
DO - 10.1080/02680930600866116
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33748472795
SN - 0268-0939
VL - 21
SP - 515
EP - 533
JO - Journal of Education Policy
JF - Journal of Education Policy
IS - 5
ER -