The Centre for International Teacher Education (CITE) & SA Research Chair in Teacher Education (SARCHI) are to host an inaugural colloquium tackling the ‘Perspective on Teacher Education in SA: 21 Years into Democracy’. The discussion will be held this coming Thursday at the Granger Bay branch of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).

The event will bring together both national and international experts for a day of dialogue on the ongoing challenges facing teacher education in the country. Amongst those set to attend are representatives from both national and provincial education departments, teachers and teacher representative bodies, as well as foreign participants.

“The idea is to put together an exciting programme of debate and dialogue on that day, as a way of setting out and detailing the research agenda that as a centre we will be embarking on over the next five years,” said SITE Director, Professor Yusuf Sayed.

According to Professor Robert van Niekerk, chairman of the Board at Rhodes University, the programme of research emerging from CITE would help bring about better information as to why the teacher educational policies developed post-Apartheid, were not having any kind of traction.

“I think the CITE is going to be on the cutting edge of looking at questions we’ve confronted over 21 years in new ways. In particular looking at issues of educational inequality, which I think is an essential question for educational change moving into the future,” he explained.

CITE Deputy Director, Professor Azeem Badroodien, said the country was currently facing problems in various areas of the education system, where there was an urgent need for teacher and researcher capacity.

“The most exciting part of this venture is not only the building of knowledge, but also the capacity building amongst students. We’ve got a lot of master’s and doctorate students in our programme, and our main goal is to build a knowledge base in them,” he said.

The colloquium is set to feature several prominent speakers, both international and local. They include Dr Edem Adubra, Chief of the Section for Teacher Policy and Development at UNESCO; Prof. Richard Tabulawa, of the University of Botswana; the National Education Collaboration Trust’s, Godwin Khosa; and Dr Maha Shuayb, of the Centre for Lebanese Studies in Beirut.

Their respective presentations include:

Dr. Abubra- Challenges of Teaching Education Quality in Africa

Prof. Tabulawa- Initial Teacher Education: Policy, Practice, and Research Challenges

Khosa- Supporting Teachers in School: Challenges and Prospects

Dr. Shuayb- Teachers, Inclusion and Equity

The colloquium is set to take place on Thursday the 12th February at the CPUT Granger Bay Hotel School from 9am until 5pm. Registration will start promptly at 8am. For more information, contact Bashierah Simon at 021 959 5833 VOC (Mubeen Banderker)