What Do You Need to Know to Design a Teacher Education Project? An Analysis of How Teacher Education Projects Are Implemented in Cambodia Against a Backdrop of Global Policy and Local Contexts

Courtney, Jane M.. 2012. What Do You Need to Know to Design a Teacher Education Project? An Analysis of How Teacher Education Projects Are Implemented in Cambodia Against a Backdrop of Global Policy and Local Contexts. Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths, University of London [Thesis]

[img]
Preview
Text (What do you need to know to design a teacher education project?)
EDU_thesis_Courtney_2012.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (3MB) | Preview

Abstract or Description

In this thesis I examine what I learnt from teacher education projects implemented in Cambodia between 2001 and 2011. I show how global, regional, national and local agendas impact on project planning, implementation and evaluation. I use a set of questions to structure my thesis based on my early experience of working in Cambodia on education projects.

In the first half of the thesis I explore how educational development projects work in relationship to multi-level contexts. I draw on research in the field of comparative and international education to contextualise the work and to justify the units of analysis. The types of data I collected and methods used reflect the different projects and the extent to which I had control over the research that was undertaken. By contextualising teacher education in the wider development agendas of international aid, neoliberal economic policies and world education culture I show how these agendas impact on project design, implementation and evaluation. Then, by analysing two projects in detail, I demonstrate how international agendas affect the project outcomes at a local level.

In the second half of the thesis I move away from the technical aspects of project design to address concepts of culture, religion, history and language in Cambodia through an exploration of the available literature, an examination of project data and by regularly interviewing six Khmer mathematics educators. Grounding the cultural concepts in the real experiences of Cambodians allowed ‘local voice’ to be given the same value as global educational priorities.

In the conclusion, the original questions and the extent to which they have been answered are again considered. This leads to a list of ‘generic activities and orientation questions’ that I hope will contribute to the planning of other international educators encountering the field of educational development for the first time.

Item Type:

Thesis (Doctoral)

Keywords:

education; teacher development; Cambodia; literacy; mathematics education; evaluation

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Educational Studies

Date:

October 2012

Item ID:

10432

Date Deposited:

30 Jun 2014 10:16

Last Modified:

08 Sep 2022 09:01

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/10432

View statistics for this item...

Edit Record Edit Record (login required)