Reflective practice among primary school teachers in Lukulu and Mongu districts of western province in Zambia.

Abstract

This study aimed at exploring the perspectives of primary school teachers towards reflective practice in primary schools of Lukulu and Mongu districts in the Western province of Zambia. The study was guided by the following questions: i) Where primary school teachers in Lukulu and Mongu district aware of reflective practice? ii) How did primary school teachers in Lukulu and Mongu districts engage in reflective practice? iii) What challenges did primary school teachers face when implementing reflective practice? The study used qualitative interpretivism research paradigm and an instrumental case study. The study comprised of 32 primary school teachers as respondents and these were chosen by using purposive sampling procedure. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussion, document analysis, reflective journal and classroom observation were used to explore the perspectives of primary school teachers towards reflective practice in primary schools of Lukulu and Mongu districts in the Western province of Zambia. Data was analysed inductively using Maykut and Morehouse’s (1994) procedure of constant comparative procedure. The findings of this research indicate that: All the 32 primary school teachers from Lukulu and Mongu districts of Western province in Zambia were not aware of reflective practice either as pre-service teachers during their college time or as serving primary school teachers. Additionally, the analysis of data showed that primary school teachers in this study did not clearly understand and ill-defined reflective practice. Reflective practice was still largely not practised by primary school teachers in Zambian primary schools. As revealed by the study primary school teachers did not engage in reflective practice during lesson planning, lesson delivery and lesson evaluation. The major challenges that prevented primary school teachers from engaging in reflective practice included lack of training, time, work load, unsupportive and uncooperative school working environment. It was also revealed that school administrators were not doing enough in equipping their teachers with the knowledge and skills in reflective practice. The study recommended the need for the development of a localized model on the training of teachers in reflective practice, additionally, a policy on reflective policy of primary school teachers needs to be developed and institutionalised in the Ministry of General Education. Furthermore, potential college and university lecturers need to be trained and equipped with the knowledge and skills in reflective practice as part of the implementation strategy of the policy on reflective practice of primary school teachers. Further still, the curriculum in primary teachers’ college of education need to be revised so that it moves away from the technical type of educating teachers to a reflective teacher training programme. In this way it would promote participatory teachers and the movement of teacher training from theoretical orientation to practical.