Abstract
This article is based on 18-month participatory action research (PAR) project conducted with teachers and school leadership personnel with strong backing of the regional education office in one of the remote and most culturally diverse regions in Eritrea. It argues for a comprehensive understanding of managing a learning process in challenging circumstances of schooling. Qualitative analysis was used to interpret 14 semi-structured interview transcripts of project participants from two study schools. A framework for understanding teaching as the intersection of knowledge of learners, processes of teaching and learning and subject matter is used. The analysis based on the interview data, longer term engagements with participants and review of relevant documents enabled authors to synthesize views of participants into five main professional perspectives: need to overcome transitory nature of teachers, knowledge of learners, proactive guidance, professional commitment, collaborative practices. Those issues arguably constitute quality education in the study schools and beyond.
Highlights
National efforts in Eritrea to expand and provide equitable educational opportunities have not been yielding the desired quality outcomes
The subsequent section provides an overview of major actions taken by participants in improving some of the challenges as part of the participatory action research (PAR) project
A participant stated: Everywhere you go in the country you find schools with flags... but I cannot say there is effective learning and teaching... it seems we have only built schools and failed to properly educate... many schools do not have effective management, for example, I can come and start my class in the 3rd period and no one holds me accountable for it as long as I am in the school. (Paulos)
Summary
National efforts in Eritrea to expand and provide equitable educational opportunities have not been yielding the desired quality outcomes. Naib (2014) further showed disparities of educational outcomes among rural and urban secondary schools and flagged the fact that equitable provision of educational opportunities is seriously suffering a setback in the country. With expanded meaning of access to schooling, i.e., regular attendance, progression at appropriate age and attaining nationally set achievement targets, a much higher number of children are being “silently excluded” from educational opportunities in developing countries These gloomy accounts of the state of schooling in the developing world are being reported with assessment frameworks that have been problematized as focusing on aspects of education that are readily measurable (Alexander, 2015)
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