Proselytising Ideologues: The Stifling Vectors of Metacognition in Andragogy

Abstract

In andragogy, one of the all-embracing goals is the provision of quality education which is realized in metacognition. The andragogic learners are expected to embody the knowledge which they acquired by participating in metacognitive activities such as innovative, critical, creative, reflective and analytical thinking as well as open-mindedness and problem solving. Qualitative research was carried out with some teacher educators and some graduating teachers who had attained distinctions in all the teacher education curricular disciplines. The research findings revealed that the extent of metacognition in teacher education learners is obfuscated by fallacious criteria considered by some ‘teacher educators’ who have lapsed into proselytising ideologues. These ‘teacher educators’ employ the banking concept of education and resort to idiosyncratic awarding of ‘distinctions’ which they consider as the measure for provision of quality education. These ‘teacher educators’ stifle the development of metacognition. The distinctions awarded tend to be a camouflaging strategy of concealing some deficiencies in their provision of quality education. Distinctiveness in teacher education is only conspicuous by showcasing one’s metacognitive activities.