Teacher Education and Research in Central Asia
This is a joint symposium by a scholar from University of Toronto (Niyozov), AKU-IED faculty (Shamatov and Joldoshalieva), a PDT (Papieva) and current course participants of MEd degree programme (Rustambekova and Konunova), all from Central Asia, specifically from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The symposium examines current teacher education programmes illustrating specifically pre-service and in- service teacher education in the region. The presentations will be based on qualitative research studies conducted by Niyozov (2001) on teachers in mountainous region of Tajikistan, by Shamatov (2005) on beginning teachers in urban and rural settings of Kyrgyzstan, and Joldoshalieva (2004) on in-service teacher professional development in Osh, Kyrgyzstan. In addition, the presenters rely on personal and professional experiences and comprehensive review of literature on teacher education in Soviet and post-Soviet Central Asia. The symposium presents issues of teacher education and seeks implications and recommendations for further improvement of teacher education in Central Asia.
After the break-up of the USSR, Central Asian states started experiencing serious problems in teacher education. The quality of teacher education, both at pre-service and in-service levels, has been deteriorating due to the governments' inability to finance teacher education programmes, thus lowering the prestige of the teaching profession. Moreover, there is lack of innovative ideas for improvements and sustainability. Resultantly, there has been a considerable decrease in the number of young people choosing teaching as a profession. The great majority of students in pre-service teacher education programmes in higher educational institutions do not want to become teachers upon graduation. Those graduates who join teaching begin at the lowest salary scale and are assigned the most difficult assignments. In addition, due to low payment and harsh economic conditions, many qualified teachers have left the school system altogether and have taken better-paid jobs to provide their families with basic necessities. Thus, teachers in Central Asia struggle with many problems, including working with unqualified or poorly qualified colleagues, low payment and shortage of resources, including textbooks, unmotivated pupils and working and living in worsening conditions. Teachers have to supplement their income by taking up extra work in order to fulfill their material needs; many teach more hours or teach in more than one school. Furthermore, many teachers work on their farms or in household businesses after school to supplement their incomes. Thus, they have little or no time for professional development. They can no longer attend professional development in-service courses or seminars regularly.