Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemGlobal agendas- local realities: challenges surrounding teacher capacity development in Cambodia( 2014)This study seeks to examine the challenges of teacher capacity development in the aftermath of events in Cambodia in the 1970s, which witnessed the decimation of its teaching force and the virtual destruction of its education system. These events continue to impact upon current education policies and practice in Cambodia. Since the 1990s the Ministry of Education, with its Development Partners, has developed a series of policies, drawing upon the global agenda for education reform, to address its most pressing concern of developing a ‘quality’ education system through teacher capacity development. Against this backdrop, this study is prompted by a widespread view that, despite the best of intentions, a succession of policies has failed to develop required levels of teacher capacity. It is designed to understand why teachers often enact policy in ways contrary to those envisaged by policy makers. The data upon which this study explores the challenges of teacher capacity development in Cambodia is based on research conducted in three government primary schools located in three different regions to reflect the geographical differences and the types of places where Cambodian children attend school: urban, rural and remote locations. Data collection sources include: semi-structured interviews, focus groups, a questionnaire, and documentary analysis. In examining teacher capacity development the views of ministry officials at both central and provincial levels, expatriates working in the field of teacher capacity development, and the directors of the teacher training colleges are also taken into account. However, priority is given to the insights of those at the school level: principals, students and, in particular, teachers. The data indicates that in order to understand the complexities surrounding the challenges of teacher capacity development a more nuanced understanding of the policy-practice nexus is needed. In particular the findings suggest that the current perspective on the policy-practice nexus neither allows nor makes provision for teachers to define capacity, and in fact, does not enable capacity to be developed. Indeed, this confirms the thesis that the ways in which policy moves from formulation to enactment is neither static nor linear and must take into account a range of factors that influence and shape how actors enact policy. Findings also suggest that culture, local environment and the realities of teachers’ work need to be recognised and acknowledged as significant issues that impact upon teacher capacity development. Moreover the research indicates that an expanded view of resources is needed that takes into consideration the vital role of human resources that are developed on an on-going basis. This study suggests that however well policies are conceived or written, if the implementation strategy is not effective then the assumptions that this strategy makes about the policy-practice nexus need to be re-thought. For policy to be effective, it needs to allow the ultimate implementers of policy – the teachers – to be accorded a more significant role not only in the processes of policy implementation but also its development. To enable teacher capacity development to occur differently to what happens currently, the study proposes a model of teacher capacity development better suited to the Cambodian situation.