Beyond Educational Reforms: A Review of Teacher Preparation in Tanzania

Abstract

Changes in the educational sector are essential, particularly for improving the quality of teaching and learning. This study, therefore, intends to explore the teacher preparation practices and how they are shaped by educational reforms. Hence, both empirical and theoretical studies were reviewed. Furthermore, this research study employed a systematic review approach on 42 articles published in a range of 15 years from 2007-2022, in order to explore teacher-preparation practices and how they are shaped by educational reforms. The paper highlights educational reforms and it illustrates those factors that shape education-reform outcomes. It portrays educators, not as individuals with the mandate to make independent choices, but rather as innovative practitioners working in a context characterised by rules and guidelines derived from within and beyond the educational arena. The study recommends that teachers’ professional learning should be strengthened in teachers’ colleges, in order to ensure that teacher educators are not only aware of innovations emerging daily, due to science and technology, but also to enable their practices to be at the same pace as those technological developments. It implies that educators, as innovative practitioners, should be made part and parcel of the process of structuring the reform program right from the inception of the reform.