This past summer, I spent six weeks in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. With support from the CAE Travel Grant, I conducted a research study and facilitated a teacher training series for 15 primary school teachers. My research aims to understand the relationship between school leadership and teachers’ adoption of learning-centered pedagogy (LCP) in low-resourced contexts. In recent years, many African countries have reformed their curriculum to align with “international standards,” and through my coursework, I learned that LCP is very much a part of this trend.
As a former teacher, I was interested in looking at how trends in global education policy impact the everyday experiences of teachers and school leaders. Further, I was curious about the differences between how LCP is articulated versus how it is enacted by both school leaders and teachers. The data I collected includes ten in-depth interviews, classroom lesson observations and participant observations. For those interested in conducting their own empirical research study for their IP I suggest getting as much feedback and guidance on your research design as possible and taking at least two research methods courses before writing your proposal. It will save you time in the latter phases of the research process.