Policy, pedagogy, and priorities: Exploring stakeholder perspectives on active learning in the Maldives

Abstract

Challenges of implementing active-learning reform have been reported across a range of countries and include the need for greater attention to contextual factors and practical realities in the reform process. This study investigates how teachers enact active-learning pedagogy within the Maldives. Using design-based research, it explores—through contextual analysis and pedagogical intervention—the conditions under which active learning can be enacted within the Child Friendly Schools framework. The article presents findings of the contextual-analysis phase, which sought to understand stakeholder priorities in order to inform the intervention phase. The World Cafe, a participatory approach to data collection, reveals the salient features of active learning considered important across the stakeholder groups: the active participation of students, the use of group work, the teacher as facilitator, a friendly classroom environment, and the potential of the reform to be tailored more equally to all students.