Academic and Administrative Practices in Secondary School Teacher Education of Ethiopia: Implications for Student-Teachers’ Learning Engagement

Abstract

The main aim of this study was to examine student-teacher learning
engagement with respect to secondary school teacher education academic and
administrative practices1
. Data were collected from 212 student teachers through
questionnaire. Teacher education management staff and teacher educators
participated in the interview sessions. One sample t-test, independent t-test,
Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions were employed as data
analysis techniques. The analysis of the data indicated the following. Among the
variables under treatment, curriculum materials’ contribution was significantly
above the expected level of performance. The actual performances of the other
variables such as teacher educators, student teachers, MoE, university and
faculty/department were significantly below the expected standards. The entire
academic practices were significantly greater than the entire administrative
practices though both were not able to attain the expected standard. As the
regression analysis revealed, all the six elected academic- and administrativerelated practices as a whole contributed 46.19% of the variant for studentteachers’ learning engagement. From this gross contribution (46.19%), 15.54%
was credited for teacher educators, 12.78% for student teachers, 11.39% for the
curriculum, 0.44% for MoE, 2.40% for universities, and 3.64% for
faculty/department. Based on the results, teacher educators and student teachers
need to be business-oriented for initiating student teachers learning engagement
whatever the quality and amount of administrative practices look like.
Teacher education administrative members (MoE, university and faculty or
department management group) should acknowledge doing something in order to
support student teachers learning engagement. Therefore, they should have clear
guidelines to create mutual understanding and practice among all teacher education
stakeholders in order to minimize challenges or confusions that come from
misunderstandings.