Equipping Lesotho's primary school teachers for educating and motivating rural children

布鲁内尔大学领导的关于“偏远农村环境下的教育系统、抱负和学习”的研究项目发现，莱索托、印度和老挝农村社区的小学生往往认为，他们的教育只在正规部门职业(教师、护士、警察、士兵等)方面有用。只有少数学习者才能实现这样的事业，因此，许多年轻人感到幻想破灭，脱离了学校教育。在莱索托，尽管新的综合课程明确寻求让儿童掌握替代未来的知识和技能，但这一点仍然存在。部分问题是，农村学校的教师也将教育视为为正式部门职业生涯做准备，他们自己并没有完全接受综合课程。接受过新课程培训的教师相对较少，目前莱索托教育学院(LCE)的初始师范教育还没有引入新课程。此外，无论是在新课程本身，还是在教师教育中，特别是农村背景下的教学问题或农村儿童的需要都几乎没有得到突出的重视。拟议的项目将寻求使莱索托的小学教师更好地使农村儿童接受教育。它将致力于创造一种与农村儿童生活更有意义的学校体验，并为他们在未来可能不在正式部门工作的生活中取得成功做好准备。因此，农村儿童将更加积极地参与教育。这种方法有四个方面：1.将农村教师的准备工作引入LCEI教育文凭小学。我们将在学生为期一年的教学实践之前的一个学期里，与学生合作，向他们传授行动研究方法，并设计行动研究项目，以便在他们的教学实践中进行。在附近的研究生教师的指导下，学生们将评估农村儿童的需求，在他们的学校进行改革，并产生宝贵的知识，这些知识将被用于以课堂为基础的教师教育以及以政策为重点的学术出版物。为了在在职教师方案中引入对农村环境的思考，LCE为那些在没有资格证书的小学任教的教师开办了一项远程教师教育方案；莱索托国立大学(NUL)为已获得教育文凭并希望在其职业生涯中取得进步的教师开办了一项教育学士方案。我们将与这些方案的运营者合作，举办一些课程，鼓励教师反思农村环境给学习者带来的挑战，探索使学校教育对农村儿童更有意义的方法。为农村教师举办在职培训讲习班--继续专业发展历来主要由教育和培训部负责，特别是由监察局和国家课程发展中心负责。有计划指出，检查组今后应确定国家方案发展的需要，但应由欧洲经济共同体和国家法律中心交付。我们将与教育部、LCE和NUL合作，为那些已经在农村学校任教的人设计和试行讲习班。这些可能侧重于与社区的外联以及在学校与学习者合作。4.为确保政府的教师教育政策和框架关注农村地区儿童的需要，已起草了涵盖教师教育的新的全面教师政策，目前正在讨论一种新的基于能力的教师培训框架模式。这些文件是在多个利益攸关方提供意见的情况下编制的。我们将召集教育部、LCE和NUL的代表，确保他们适当关注农村儿童的具体需求，确保对更偏远地区的儿童来说，教育是有意义和有价值的。

The Brunel University-led research project on "Education systems, aspiration and learning in remote rural settings" found that primary school children in rural communities in Lesotho, India and Laos tend to see their education as being useful only in relation to formal sector careers (teacher, nurse, policeman, soldier etc). Such careers can be achieved by only a minority of learners and, as a consequence, many young people are left disillusioned, and disengage from schooling. In Lesotho, this is despite a new integrated curriculum that explicitly seeks to equip children with knowledge and skills for alternative futures. Part of the problem is that teachers in rural schools also see education as preparation for a formal sector career, and have not themselves fully embraced the integrated curriculum. Relatively few teachers have received any training in the new curriculum and it is not currently introduced in initial teacher education at Lesotho College of Education (LCE). Moreover, issues of teaching in specifically rural contexts, or the needs of rural children, have little prominence either in the new curriculum itself, or in teacher education.The proposed project will seek to equip Lesotho's primary school teachers better for engaging rural children with education. It will aim to produce a school experience that connects more meaningfully with rural children's lives and prepares them for success in a future life that might not be in a formal sector job. Rural children will as a consequence engage more actively with schooling.There are four strands to the approach:1. TO INTRODUCE PREPARATION FOR RURAL TEACHERS INTO THE DIPLOMA IN EDUCATION PRIMARY AT LCEWe will work with students in the term preceding their year-long teaching practice to teach them action research methods and design action research projects to undertake during their teaching practice. Supervised by nearby graduate teachers, the students will assess the needs of rural children, institute change in their schools and generate valuable knowledge that will feed into classroom-based teacher education and policy-focused and academic publications.2. TO INTRODUCE REFLECTION ON RURAL CONTEXTS TO PROGRAMMES FOR IN-SERVICE TEACHERS LCE runs a Distance Teacher Education Programme for those teaching in primary schools without a qualification; the National University of Lesotho (NUL) runs a Bachelor of Education programme for teachers who have completed a Diploma in Education and wish to progress their careers. We will work with those who run these programmes to build in sessions that encourage the teachers to reflect on the challenges that rural settings pose to learners, to explore ways of making schooling more meaningful to rural children.3. TO DEVELOP IN-SERVICE TRAINING WORKSHOPS FOR RURAL TEACHERSContinuing Professional Development (CPD) has historically been largely a responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), particularly the Inspectorate and National Curriculum Development Centre. There are plans that in future the Inspectorate should identify the need for CPD but this should be delivered by LCE and NUL. We will work with the MOET, LCE and NUL to design and trial workshops for those already teaching in rural schools. These might focus on outreach with communities as well as working with learners in school. 4. TO WORK TO ENSURE THAT GOVERNMENT POLICY AND FRAMEWORKS FOR TEACHER EDUCATION PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN IN RURAL CONTEXTSA new Comprehensive Teacher Policy has been drafted which covers teacher education, and a new competency-based framework model for training teachers is under discussion. These documents are being produced with input from multiple stakeholders. We will bring together representatives of MOET, LCE and NUL to ensure that they give appropriate attention to the specific needs of rural children, to ensure that education is meaningful and valuable to children in more remote areas.