A Critical Review of the Practice of Teacher Education in Ethiopia: Assumptions, Promises and Pitfalls

It is believed that education, which is greatly influenced by the practice of teacher education, has a significant impact up on the success of any individual and a nation. Hence, to improve the quality of education in a nation, it is important to improve the quality of teacher education in that nation. This paper is intended to examine whether teacher education practices in Ethiopia address the problems and realities of the Ethiopian educational system and to assess whether the assumptions and practices of the Ethiopian teacher education complements with modern perspectives. To achieve this purpose, the teacher education program is analyzed against empirical evidences. Furthermore, the study has explored the challenges faced in the implementation of the teacher education program. To this end, trainee teachers, teachers, teacher educators, concerned others and pertinent documents were used as sources of data. Data were collected from different sources using document analysis, interview and observation. Using Hatch’s interpretive data analysis model I have examined the data closely in order to find constructs, themes and patterns that can be used to describe and explain the phenomena being studied. Finally, I came to understand that the teacher education practice in Ethiopia is seriously entangled with many problems associated with recruitment, training and education, development of pedagogical content knowledge and practice-teaching. The implication of this study has illuminated ways to resolve the problems observed.