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?