June George

Any attempt to improve the quality of basic education in schools immediately places the preparation of teachers as the point of central focus, since teachers and teaching are accepted as important factors in the success or failure of children. The role of teachers in contributing to the quality of education has been well acknowledged. Joyce and Weil (1972, p. 4) refer to the teacher as the “mid-wife of educational change” who is expected to provide an education that will equip the young to survive and develop to their fullest, and which will provide them with a sense of social responsibility and the ability to make informed choices in a consistently changing complex world. The preparation of teachers must, therefore, be afforded the care, attention, and support needed to ensure that the desired outcomes of the teaching/learning process are achieved.

The Multi-Site Teacher Education Research project (MUSTER) has explored initial teacher education in five countries – Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, and Trinidad and Tobago. National research teams have collected and analysed data on key dimensions of the training process including the characteristics of those selected for training, the curriculum processes they experience, the perspectives and working practices of those who train
teachers, the outcomes of training, the reflections of newly trained teachers in schools, analysis of supply and demand for new teachers, and projections of the resource and cost implications of meeting national targets to universalise primary schooling.