A common story of teachers from the Global South portrays them as deficient, unreliable and unprofessional. However, this book uses an innovative Capability Approach/Critical Realist lens to reveal the causal links between teachers' constrained capabilities and their 'criticised' behaviours. Transforming Teacher Quality in the Global South first applies this analytical lens to a Tanzanian case study in order to show how issues concerning gender, leadership and daily survival are causally linked to actions such as absenteeism, distraction and lack of preparation. The second half of this book then uses the lens to inform the design of interventions to address these and other issues, such as corporal punishment, teacher morale and female teacher deployment to rural schools. The analyses from this award-winning research not only provide detailed explanations of teacher performance, but also offer nuanced and creative strategies aimed at improvements. This book will be of great value to anyone in education and international development who would like to see theoretical and academic rigour underpin practical strategies aiming to transform teacher quality.

Autorentext

Sharon Tao is Education Adviser at Cambridge Education, UK and has worked on donor-funded education programmes across Africa and South Asia. She was awarded the Institute of Education-University College London Director's Prize for her PhD research which underpins her work within countries on teacher development, gender, school improvement and the enhancement of social justice in education.

Inhalt

1. Rethinking Teacher Quality in the Global South

PART I: CAPABILITIES, CAUSALITY AND TEACHER PRACTICE: AN EXAMINATION OF TANZANIAN COMPLEXITIES

2. A New Lens for Analysis: The Capability Approach and Critical Realism

3. The Causal Effect of First-Order Functionings

4. How Gender is Causally Linked to Teacher Practice

5. Leadership's Causal Link to Classroom (In)action

PART II: PUTTING THE CA/CR LENS INTO PRACTICE: NEW PATHS FOR TRANSFORMING TEACHER QUALITY

6. Improving Female Teacher Deployment to Rural Schools

7. Reducing Corporal Punishment

8. Improving Teacher Motivation and Morale

9. Transforming Teacher Quality: Possibilities and Challenges