Abstract
Many developing countries are seeking to improve the quality of education by promoting the use of learner-centred pedagogy as part of system wide reform. Yet many studies reveal a gap between what is envisaged in policy and what happens in practice and the inherent limitations of uncritical adoption of 'best practice' from elsewhere into local contexts. Therefore design-based research (DBR), as an interventionist approach, was selected to investigate the conditions under which the innovation of learner-centred education can be implemented in the authentic setting of a Maldivian island school. The paper elaborates the rationale underpinning this choice and a discussion of the defining features of DBR as they applied in this study: acknowledging the importance of context; facilitating collaboration between researcher and participants; and attending to a theoretical output of the research. The participatory approach which underpinned how DBR was utilised in the study and its implications for enhancing the context-appropriateness of and teachers' engagement with the reforms is also discussed. In so doing, the paper illustrates the ways in which the defining features of DBR respond to the call for better attention to context as a means for enabling greater success of global reform efforts.
Highlights
In light of international targets such as the Education For All Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals, many countries are seeking to improve the quality of education by promoting the use of learnercentred approaches as part of system-wide reform
There is a gap between what is envisaged in such policies and what happens in practice
A substantial body of literature documents the challenges of implementing such a reform agenda across a range of developing countries, where widespread endorsement of this pedagogical approach is seen as an antidote to teacher transmission models (Leyendecker, Ottevanger, & Van den Akker, 2008)
Summary
In light of international targets such as the Education For All Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals, many countries are seeking to improve the quality of education by promoting the use of learnercentred approaches as part of system-wide reform This comes with support from donor organisations promoting such participatory and democratic approaches to teaching, referred to as active learning. A substantial body of literature documents the challenges of implementing such a reform agenda across a range of developing countries, where widespread endorsement of this pedagogical approach is seen as an antidote to teacher transmission models (Leyendecker, Ottevanger, & Van den Akker, 2008) It is well-documented that a lack of attention to contextual features during this process of reform is a contributing factor in the policy-practice gap (Crossley, 2010; Schweisfurth, 2013a). Reports of learner-centred education (LCE) reform across various contexts are ‘riddled with stories of failure grand and small’ (Schweisfurth, 2011, p. 425), highlighting the ongoing and widespread nature of the challenges facing such pedagogical reform across contexts, where teacher-centred approaches prevail
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