Title: Teacher training and transitions in rural Indonesian schools: a case study of Bogor, West Java
Abstract: Abstract As one of the world's largest and most diverse countries, Indonesia faces an enormous challenge as it seeks to upgrade the skills and knowledge of its widespread primary teacher workforce. This challenge is even more acute in remote rural areas, where practising teachers require specialized training to work in classrooms with children of different ages and grades. Yet, due to their remote locations, these teachers have little access to training opportunities, and teacher educators have few opportunities to assess their needs. To explore training needs and instructional strategies employed by rural teachers, we conducted a case study of nine rural schools in the district of Bogor, West Java. We interviewed headmasters and teachers in these schools, instructors at a major Indonesian university, and a district official. We found that while rural teachers generally consider their training to be helpful, they receive little guidance to help them manage and teach large multigrade classes. As a result, pedagogical practices and perspectives vary across nine schools in the same rural district. At the same time, a growing number of “contract teachers” in these schools has reduced the number of multigrade classrooms while increasing the need for training of novice teachers in rural schools. Keywords: Indonesiateacher trainingrural schoolsmultigrade teachingcontract teachers Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Atwi Suparman, Tian Belawati, Ojat Darojat, and the many other faculty and staff at the Open University of Indonesia who supported us in our research. We would also like to thank teachers, headmasters, and officials in Bogor, West Java who generously shared their time and insights with us. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge intellectual support and advice from J. Michael Spector. Finally, we thank three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are of course our own. Notes 1. The objective of this course at one major national university in Indonesia (as indicated by the course textbook) is for students to have an understanding of the concepts and principles of multigrade teaching and to develop skills needed to teach two classes or more at the same time. The course text includes six modules: (1) The Principles of Multigrade Learning; (2) Models of Management and Teaching of Multigrade Classes; (3) Management of Multigrade Classes; (4) The Environment as a Learning Resource in Multigrade Teaching; (5) Developing Skills Teaching Small Groups and Individuals in the Multigrade Teaching Plan; and (6) Skills Teaching of Small Groups and Individuals in Multigrade Teaching. 2. In some cases, the figures we collected at school locations differed from those reported in documents provided by the Bogor School District. In these cases we use the data that we collected, as it is more likely to reflect the situation at the time of our interviews. 3. In a few cases, headmasters from schools that were not in our sample attended and participated in our interview sessions. We include these headmasters among the interview subjects because they all worked in rural schools in Bogor.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 20
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