A Collaborative Self-study of Action Research Supervision: How can Mentorship be Used to Improve In-service Teacher Training in Uganda?

Abstract

It is not just a learning crisis but a teacher crisis! While Sub-Saharan Countries in general and, Uganda in particular, are grappling with poor learning outcomes at all levels, the ability of teachers and school leaders to respond to the learners’ needs to raise learning outcomes remains a major challenge. Teacher quality plays a central role if Sub-Sahara African countries are to accelerate early grade learning and raise retention in the subsequent grades. The purpose of this study was to explore how a collaborative self-study can be used to galvanise teachers and school leaders’ capacity to improve their practice through action research supervision. This study describes how a collaborative self-study was used in the supervision of action research using a mentorship process. We provide a retrospective account of our reflections on the actions and experience with our students (teacher trainees) during our research supervision. We present a collaborative self-study as a study method with a discursive power of generating research knowledge and improving our practice and that of the teacher trainees. In this self-study, we focused on our work with a sample of 13 (7 female, 6 male) teacher trainees. This research indicates that while self-study is faced with challenges of unfair competition from traditional research methods, it can be helpful in contextualising teacher education.