Teacher Education in Central America: Trends and Innovations

1
Teacher Education in Central America Trends and
Innovations

• Ana Patricia Elvir
• September, 2006

2
The Current Situation

• Pre-service and in-service education has had
  relative outcomes in light of its key role in
  educational reforms. The short programs and
  highly theoretical study plans have sacrificed
  classroom practice and the preparation of
  materials, fundamental aspects in the preparation
  of good teachers.
• The careers are characterized by low prestige, a
  poorly prepared teaching force, too much emphasis
  on methodology based on direct instruction and
  little attention placed on appropriate technical
  pedagogies for underprivileged students.
• This deficit is made worse by the low quality of
  basic and lower secondary education that much
  if not the majority of future teachers receive
  before they begin their studies in a university
  or teacher education institution.
• Construction of the teacher profession in Latin
  America. Working group on the Teacher
  Professionalization in Latin America. PREAL
• We are referring to the teacher education of
  educators in early childhood, basic and lower
  secondary.

3
Trends

• Teacher Education Reform
• Raise it to the university level. (Guatemala,
  Honduras y Nicaragua to a lower secondary level
  through a transformation process) In El Salvador
  and Costa Rica teacher education takes place at
  the university level)
• Make sure it responds adequately to local and
  national contexts
• That it incorporates new educational paradigms.
• That it develops the autonomy and innovation
  capacity of the educators
• That it prepares educators for reflection during
  the professional excercise
• Adoption of professional development and
  continuing education programs
• Specializations (by topic, by level, by modality)
• Constant change of paradigms according to the
  development of research and experimentation.

4
Trends

• Growing interest in research and experimentation
• Increasing interest in teacher educators, but
  still insufficient
• A steadily widening particpation of NGOs and
  international cooperation entities in teacher
  education.
• Fe y Alegria
• Red Save the Children

5
Innovations

• GUATEMALA
• Multicultural and multilingual education for
  educators (Instituto Santiago, Escuela Normal
  Bilingüe Intercultural, Foundation for the
  Development and education of Indigenous Women)
• EL SALVADOR
• Action Research / Reflection as a methodology to
  educate teachers(UCA)
• Experimentation in pedagogical practices that
  produce resources as part of the teacher
  education process (Universidad de El Salvador)
  designing interdiscipolinary models of teacher
  education (Instituto Epecializado de Educación
  Superior) teaching forms of education through
  the arts (Universidad de El Salvador) and
  learning to teach through the development of
  educational projects (Universidad Pedagógica)

6
Innovations

• NICARAGUA
• Introducción to a focus on Education for
  Understanding as a conceptual framework for
  teacher education and develop a network of
  trainers to disseminate its use within the
  inservice teaching force. Improvements in the
  bsystem have been seen after adopting this focus
  more possibilities for applying flexibility in
  curriculums, and an increase in opportunities for
  students to develop their creativity(MECD)
• Design of a specialization in rural education,
  constructed through a reading of successful
  experiences(MECD).
• Intensive teacher practice in rural communities
  oriented at a future teacher that lives with a
  family during his/her practicum (Escuela Normal
  de Estelí).
• Develop an interactive model of pedagogic
  strategies for multigrade classrooms through
  successful experiences in the model Proyecto BASE
  (USAID).

7
Innovations

• HONDURAS (Secretaria de Educación)
• Develop a model for updating skills for teachers
  within the framework of the Regional project on
  Centers of Exvcellence for teacher training
  (CETT), in order to improve the teaching of
  literacy in the early grades of primary
• Specialized training in teaching mathmatics
  (Proyecto PROMETAM) with cooperation support from
  Japan
• Degree in Basic Education Administration

8
Innovations

• COSTA RICA
• Systematization of lived experiences in the
  pedagogic interventions of education university
  students in the classroom (Universidad Nacional)
• Action Research in the classroom (Universidad
  de Costa Rica) for education students working as
  teachers
• Incorporation of a course on interpersonal
  relations in pedagogic processes in the study
  plan of pre-service education(Universidad
  Nacional)
• REGION
• - National and regional meetings for the creation
  of a new form of pre-service teacher education,
  professional development and performance
  evaluation

9
Challenges

• How to finance teacher education reform with
  small MEC budgets, the majority of which are
  absorbed by recurrent expenditures like salaries?
• How do you make the career attractive given its
  low salaries and inadequate working conditions?
  
• How do you bring together teacher education
  reform with other education reform processes that
  are already underway? (currículum, evaluation,
  texts)?
• How do we take advantage of NGOs to collaborate
  in teacher educationCómo aprovechar el potencial
  de las ONGs? How do we guarantee the stability
  and continuity across time of programs?
• How do we make use of lessons learned considering
  that teacher education and innovations in teacher
  education are infrequently the subject of
  research?