The teacher education curriculum and the world of work: A study of teachers of disadvantaged children in Nigeria

Abstract

A key element in the current attempt to actualise the goals of the Dakar Framework of Action for Education for All in Nigeria is the broadening of access to education for disadvantaged groups. These groups include: nomadic pastoralists; migrant fishermen; and out-of-school children and youth. Special educational programs are being provided for them so as, inter alia, to: integrate them into the mainstream of Nigeria's social and political life; disseminate modern occupational and life skills; and promote cultural renewal based on reconstructionist principles. The major concern of this paper is to analyse the teacher education curriculum in Nigeria vis-à-vis the concrete existential realities in which teachers of these disadvantaged groups teach. It critically examines the extent to which the curriculum prepares teachers for the world of minority children, particularly the realities of the schools and the cultural contexts within which teaching takes place. To what extent has the teacher education curriculum adequately prepared teachers for the realities and challenges of teaching disadvantaged children? What do the teachers themselves think of the training they have received? How have their experiences as teachers of disadvantaged groups influenced their sense of marginalisation, professionalism and sense of worth? These questions are posed using quantitative and qualitative strategies so as to determine the level of congruence or incongruence between the existential realities of teachers’ work and the teacher education curriculum. Finally the paper highlights the suggestions made by the teachers sampled for this study about how to reform the teacher education curriculum in order most effectively to address the peculiarities and challenges of the cultural and educational contexts in which they work.