Teacher education has an important role in ensuring quality of learning especially for the poorest children. The article draws on a study of teacher preparation for the early primary grades in six African countries--Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda--in reading and mathematics. Initial teacher education had the strongest impact on…

Teacher education programmes are often quite similar in their framework and content but often lack sufficient reflection on the personal background and the socio-political forces that shape teachers' roles and identity within the systems in which they operate. This paper explores this issue by using Ghana as a case study and discusses implications…

This paper explores the perceptions of three groups of teacher education trainees in Ghana--those beginning training, those completing training, and those with two years' experience in schools. A structured instrument was used to assess responses to statements about the status of teachers and teaching, teacher control, preferences for posting and…