Global discourses and local cultures(s) of practice in secondary teacher education in Fiji

• Main Author: Tuinamuana, Katarina
• Published: University of Edinburgh 2002
• Subjects: 370.711
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.663080

Given that education is widely perceived as imperative to social development and transformation, this thesis examines the discourses surrounding the particular role teacher-education might have in this objective. Of particular interest is the extent to which historical and current socio-economic global imperatives combine to influence how initial secondary teacher-education in Fiji might be reinterpreting and/or reconstructing dominant paradigms of teacher-education. The study asks questions about the role of teacher-education in the reproduction and transformation of these dominant paradigms, with pedagogy contextualised in social and political boundaries, hence the interest in ideology and the underlying assumptions that drive teacher-education. An examination is made of the interface between the processes of teacher-education policy and practice at the level of local culture/s of practice and its associated discourses. The major research question asks: To what extent do globally defined discourses surrounding education impact on the local culture/s of teacher-education practice in the Fiji context? The fieldwork explores the major discourses of practice evident in the way that secondary teacher-education is organised and implemented in Fiji, and considers whether these discourses signify a particular paradigm of teacher-education. The findings note that firstly, the current discourses underpinning the organisation and practice of teacher-education in Fiji, tend to suggest the dominance of technocratic approaches in the form of discourses of ‘routinised practice’. The second major set of findings indicates ‘competing approaches and visions about teacher-education’. Whilst teacher professionalism is high on the agenda of those closely involved with teacher-education in Fiji, there are, however, indications that any humanistic developments in teacher-education that support a more critical pedagogy may well become submerged and therefore change becomes less likely. The thesis concludes by arguing that the intersection of local and global discourses impacts in profound ways on teacher-education, suggesting significant implications for educational policy and its implementation in Fiji.