The Epistemological Structures of Teacher Training Programmes in Sudan (1900 – 2023)

Abstract

Traditional Western applied linguistics viewed the teachers as technicists, and the process of teacher-training as unproblematic applications of theoretical linguistic principles already constructed in the Global North. Teacher training programmes throughout Sudanese history have played a significant role in instructing teachers at the different levels of education in the country. Each training programme seemingly works along certain epistemological lines to achieve professionalism in the learning by its teachers. The authors engage with the following three related questions: What is the nature of the epistemological structures embedded in teacher-training programmes in Sudan? How do they dialectically shape the design of Sudanese English language teacher-training programmes in attaining professionalism? And how is the teacher trainee's identity imagined and enacted in the training materials and practice? Drawing on theoretical framework, the chapter explores a case study of five teacher-training programmes. The chapter demonstrates that most programmes analysed conform to “technicist,” applied, and competency-based epistemologies of teacher education/training.