Education for All: Exploring What Student Teachers and Beginning Teachers Really Know

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to find out what student teachers and beginning teachers from a teacher training institution knew about Education for All (EFA). The study was guided by three research questions. Two null hypotheses were tested. The participants (student teachers and beginning teachers) were from a teacher training institution in Jamaica, and an exploratory (quantitative) research design was used with a questionnaire as the data collection method. The findings showed that despite the rich literature on EFA in the Caribbean, a majority of the student teachers and the beginning teachers from this particular teacher training institution did not know much about EFA. The findings also indicated that a majority of the student teachers and the beginning teachers were in agreement with the roles teachers need to play in supporting EFA initiatives. The findings also showed that a majority of the student teachers and the beginning teachers were satisfied with the training they experienced. The results did not show any difference in the perceptions expressed by the student teachers and the beginning teachers. Recommendations are made to include EFA in the teacher training curriculum and to provide professional development programmes on EFA for beginning teachers in order to make them more aware of the EFA goals.