College of Education

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/1647

The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Africa

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Teachers' Beliefs and Practices Toward Children with Disabilities in Ethiopia
    (2014) Abera, Nicole Taylor; Beckman, Paula J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to examine the beliefs and practices of teachers toward students with disabilities at one early childhood school in Ethiopia. I conducted a case study that included ethnographic features in order to examine teachers' beliefs about children with disabilities, factors that influence their beliefs and ways in which teachers' beliefs are evidenced by their daily classroom practices. I used the bioecological systems theory as a framework to consider data for this study. I conducted a series of classroom observations and interviews with 12 teachers at Addis Early Childhood School (AECS) for this study. I also gathered extensive background and contextual data interviews with other Ethiopian education professionals in order to gather additional data on this topic and to triangulate data I gathered from primary sources. Findings of the study indicate that, although AECS teachers acknowledged that Ethiopian traditional beliefs linking disabilities to supernatural causes persist in Ethiopia, most AECS teachers rejected those beliefs and believed children with disabilities could learn with appropriate support. Teachers' prior training and experience related to teaching children with disabilities influenced their beliefs about children with disabilities. They held similar expectations for all of their students regardless of their abilities, and they often provided assistance and differentiation to students in order to help them meet participatory, behavioral and academic standards. Findings from this study provide valuable information for Ethiopian teachers, education policy makers, and international organizations as they continue to reform Ethiopia's education system and attempt to improve education for all children.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The acculturation of adult African refugee language learners in Israel: an ethnographic study
    (2012) Blake III, Charles Carlos; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The number of refugees from Africa seeking asylum in Israel has recently skyrocketed, raising issues as to how to integrate them into Israeli society. Education is one of the mediums being used to encourage the cultural integration and inclusion of the refugees into Israeli society; very little is known, however, about how Africans are acculturating or whether language education is helping with this process. In particular, I use Berry's model of acculturation and Ogbu's cultural model as lenses through which the acculturation of refugees can be understood. In order to provide an answer to these questions, I conducted an ethnographic study examining the acculturation of adult African refugees participating in a language program in Tel Aviv. I utilized criterion-based sampling to select 8 student participants for this study. Data collection consisted of interviews with student-participants, interviews with teacher participants and document review. Data analysis entailed the coding and categorization of data elicited from data collection. Results suggest that participants exhibited the characteristics of immigrants employing a separation/segregation acculturation strategy according to Berry's model. Most participants also have the characteristics of what Ogbu calls involuntary migrants. Instead of facilitating host country cultural understanding or participation, higher language proficiency was associated with more negative perceptions of Israelis and Israeli society.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    SQUARING THEIR ROOTS: LEADERSHIP PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICES OF SOME U.S.-TRAINED AFRICAN PROFESSIONALS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR
    (2010) Dant, William Patrick; Herschbach, Dennis; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    This qualitative study looks at the leadership perceptions and practices of career professionals in the public sector across three countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana and Madagascar). All participants were alumni of the Humphrey Fellowship program, a year-long mid-career fellowship in the United States for professional development and leadership. The study sought to understand the participants' perceptions of leadership and how they apply it in their professional practice. The research questions were How do U.S.-trained Africans perceive the relevance of their U.S. leadership training in their home-country practice? To what extent can they incorporate U.S. leadership approaches into their leadership practice there? The literature review includes the history and current state of leadership research and theory, the field of intercultural communications and recent scholarship and program evaluations on leadership and leadership training across cultures. Noteworthy are the lack of recent scholarship on public sector leadership in Africa and the transference of western-developed models in most international training. Data collection consisted of in-depth interviews with 16 primary research participants who were mid- to upper-level career professionals in their respective countries' public service. Additional related data were gathered from participants' fellowship documents; data gathered from primary participants were reviewed with focus groups including primary and secondary participants. Data analysis followed a grounded theory method, allowing themes to emerge directly from the data collected. Findings were compared across participants within and across research sites considering professional sector, gender, cultural and educational background and political/economic contexts. The substantive grounded theories emerging from the study identified as the central theme the importance of "operating space" as an environment around individual capacity to exercise leadership practices, and its interaction with issues of culture. Results reflected the importance of the macro-context and levels of democratization within which participants operate on the micro-context of their own professional leadership practice. The study recommends that future research on leadership in Africa pay more attention to the importance of macro-context and culture in developing leadership capacity in such individuals, and recommends specific approaches for enhancing leadership training for individuals from such backgrounds, including peer mentoring, case study and experiential exercises.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Re-Making the Namibian Teacher: A Study of Teacher Reflection in an Era of Social Transition and Policy Reform.
    (2008-12-15) Ralaingita, Wendi D.S.; Klees, Steven J; Spreen, Carol Anne; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    After achieving independence from South Africa in 1990, the Namibian government began sweeping educational reforms. These reforms were built on a new philosophy of education that envisaged education as playing a transformative role in post-apartheid Namibia. New teacher education programs have been the cornerstone of these reforms and focus on learner-centered pedagogy, placing emphasis on critical reflection - a drastic change from the teacher-centered education previously found in Namibian classrooms. Recent research in Namibian classrooms indicates that teachers communicate an understanding of pedagogical principles endorsed in official policy, but this often does not translate into observable differences in classroom practice. This study examines this situation from a new perspective, moving beyond teachers' understanding of the technical aspects of methodology to focus on the beliefs they hold about education and teaching. Literature on teacher thinking, learning, and change tells us that teachers' beliefs are integral to teachers' practice and to changes in practice. These beliefs may be influenced by multiple, sometimes conflicting, messages that teachers receive through policy declarations, teacher training programs, and discussions with education officials, colleagues and parents. This study examines the meaning teachers in the Namibian context have made of such messages and the beliefs they have developed about the purposes of education, the role of the teacher, and the meaning of quality teaching, as well as the connection of these with their practice. Qualitative methods were used, including teacher and principal interviews and focus groups, classroom observations, interviews at the ministerial level, and document analysis. Deductive and inductive coding was used to generate and analyze themes in order develop a picture of the ways in which the purpose of education, the role(s) of the teacher, and the meaning of quality teaching are portrayed among teachers and at the policy level. Variations among teachers and comparisons between teachers and policy documents were examined. The findings show that teachers' beliefs often concur with ideas espoused in policy documents, though with differences in some key areas. The study also explores the challenges that teachers face in trying to teach in accordance with their beliefs, and implications for professional development are discussed.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Impact of Globalization on Education Reform: A Case Study of Uganda
    (2008-05-14) Wood, Jane C. Millar; Lin, Jing; Klees, Steven J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Abstract This case study examines the impact of globalization on education policies, structure and practice in Uganda during a 20-year period from 1987-2007. Post-primary education is the principal focus of this research as it is critical to preparing young people to participate in Uganda's socio-economic and political development process and thus position the country for participation in the global economy. However, given post- primary's pivotal position between primary and tertiary education, it has to be viewed in the context of the longer educational continuum. Thus, the "before" and "after" levels of education are also addressed. The dissertation explores an array of issues related to globalization and education. These include stakeholders' perceptions and understandings of globalization, the modalities of "transmitting" reform ideas and policies around the world, and specific educational reforms in Uganda at the sector and sub-sector levels. It also explores the impact of these educational reforms (a) on beneficiaries in terms of access, equity, relevance, and quality and (b) on Uganda in terms of positioning the country to respond to the opportunities and challenges of globalization. The study concluded that globalization has had an impact on education reform in Uganda in several ways. The reforms themselves have yielded some positive benefits for the beneficiaries but much remains to be done to ensure the expansion of access and equity as well as improvements in the relevance and quality of education. Uganda's experience in implementing these reforms has some lessons for other countries considering similar changes in education policy and practice.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN SENEGAL
    (2005-01-25) Nordtveit, Bjorn Harald; Klees, Steven J.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The World Bank and other international institutions often promote market-based solutions for implementation of public services. This research examines the set-up, implementation, and results of public-private partnerships and outsourcing, using a World-Bank funded literacy project for women in Senegal as a case study. The case is analyzed from a critical and welfare economics perspective, as well as from a neoliberal view, and shows how the analytical approach conditions the understanding of the project. The World Bank implements much of its development projects in the belief that the market is more cost-effective than government implementation. In this case, literacy education was not funded by the World Bank until the Senegalese state had formulated a project that fit the Bank's neoliberal policy vision. The requirement of private implementation strategies was a way to impose marked-based solutions that in the end proved to be unreasonable and ineffective. Analysis of enrollment, success and drop-out rates shows that the project enrolled approximately 180,000 learners, of which only about 44,000 learned to write and read. The literacy courses offered very cheap and very ineffective schooling (whereas the state-implemented primary school system offered much more expensive but also a somewhat more effective education). Literacy education offered in Senegal therefore appears to be poor education for the poorest of the citizens. The literacy providers offered low-quality literacy learning because they wanted to make money from the service delivery, and therefore cut costs. The government and the World Bank failed to correct these negative aspects of the public-private partnership system. The outsourcing affected civil society in Senegal. The project created and structured civil society by helping to establish women's associations in the villages. However, outsourcing also had a negative effect, since provider associations increasingly became businesses that were dependent on politicians, and corrupt practices multiplied. In order to improve literacy education in Senegal, it is necessary to acknowledge the inability of the market to solve literacy problems on its own, and to adopt a more balanced distribution of responsibilities between the public and the private sectors.