Teacher Education in Pakistan with Particular Reference to Teachers' Conceptions of Teaching
Teacher education and teachers are a crucial part of educational change and development. Efforts are being made globally to improve teacher education programmes and enhance teachers' professional development in wake of information and communications technology and growing notions of globalisation, including theories of free-trade market economy.
The colossal socio-economic changes occurring at an unprecedented rate in demographic, political, economic, cultural and technological arenas have influenced reforms in education, in general, and teacher education, in particular, and impacted the ways in which teachers and students are perceived and have made teachers' work more demanding.
It is in this context that this paper discusses teacher education in Pakistan with particular emphasis on teachers' conceptions of teaching in improving quality of education.
This paper is based on an initial study that examines teachers' conceptions of teaching in the context of Pakistan. The study seeks to explore whether teachers' conceptions of teaching influence decision-making in classroom teaching. It describes conditions of teaching and learning in Pakistan and argues for reform in teacher education to improve quality of teaching and learning.
Four course participants of an MEd programme of the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (AKU-IED) that employs more reflective and constructivist approaches to teaching and learning have been considered here as four case studies using an interpretive and constructivist approaches and methodological triangulation.
The aim of the study is to examine why the quality of teaching and learning is considered poor in Pakistan. Does it have to do with teachers' training and their professional development and the ways in which they conceptualize teaching and learning? How far their conceptions of teaching are influenced by the social and cultural environment within and outside the school and whether or not these conceptions shape their understanding of teaching as enacted in their practices?
Research instruments such as semi-structured interviews (12), students' focus groups (4) and a questionnaire (11) were employed to seek the four CPs' conceptions of teaching. In addition, a questionnaire was used and sent to 13 other CPs who belonged to different regions of Pakistan to seek their conceptions of teaching to enhance validity and reliability of the study.
Preliminary findings and some initial conclusions drawn from this study illuminate that teachers' schooling background, their teachers' approaches to teaching who taught them, socio-cultural contexts of the society in which they live, teachers' own knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning, their professional development, school environment and their colleague-teachers play significant role in shaping teachers' conceptions of teaching. Teachers' conceptions range from teacher-centred transmission and conventional approaches to teaching to child-centred, active and transformative approaches. However, reflective and reflexive conceptions did not significantly emerge.