‘In Search of Teachers’ is the most recent research to emerge from the partnership between the EI EFAIDS Programme and the University of Amsterdam.
The research project, undertaken by Master’s student Herman Kruijer, focuses on the issue of the shortage of teachers in primary schools in Tanzania. The motives of student teachers entering the teaching profession and their perspectives on teaching as a career formed the basis of the research.
The Tanzanian Teacher’s Union (TTU) took an active role in assisting the research, which will be an additional tool in their advocacy work in support of quality Education for All. The research finds that “the union should have a central role in channelling the voice of teachers, when considering the policies to answer the shortage of teachers in Tanzanian primary education”.
It is anticipated that the findings of the research will “provide supplementary knowledge to support the discussion and policies, especially at the civil society level, that aim to increase the number of teachers in primary education in Tanzania”.
A short documentary film complements the research, and features interviews with students at teacher training colleges on their motivations and aspirations on teaching.
The collaboration between the EI EFAIDS Programme and the University of Amsterdam is an integral part of the research dimension of the programme. Unions benefit from and cooperate in research, while higher education students get a hands-on feel for field work.
The report ‘In Search of Teachers’ as well as the accompanying documentary film is available as a BitTorrent file download. Use Opera or µtorrent to download the files.