Teacher reform in Indonesia: can offshore programs create lasting pedagogical shift?

Abstract

Regional and national interest in reforming teaching in Indonesia has seen governments, NGOs and education specialists combine to drive pedagogical changes among school teachers there. Results of these programs have been indifferent at best. This paper reports on teacher reform programs in Provinsi Papua, one of the most marginal societies in Indonesia. The Papuan Provincial Government, AusAID and an Australian University focused on bringing cohorts of secondary teachers and Principals for professional development to Australia. An evaluative, survey inquiry was conducted into the effectiveness of a series of AusAID (now DFAT Australian Aid) Scholarship programs on changing capacities and approaches of teachers and Principals at least eighteen months after their offshore experience. Findings revealed significant changes in teaching practices, improved quality of teacher-student relationships and improved interactions with colleagues. We argue that our findings demonstrate an appetite for student-centred approaches to teaching and that offshore programs may have important outcomes that larger scale, in-country programs fail to realise. This has implications for DFAT Australian Aid-funded and similar Scholarship programs.

Indonesian Educators’ Knowledge and Beliefs about Teaching Children with Autism

“…Another issue concerns the drive towards developing inclusive education within Indonesia and how any existing approaches might be used within this context. The use of extranational experts and their approaches does not have a successful record of sustaining effective teacher development within Indonesia (Allen, Hyde, Whannel, & O'Neill, 2017). It was notable one of the 'top five' approaches was Signalong Indonesia, a keyword signing approach recently developed for inclusive Indonesian classrooms (Budiyanto et al, 2017), that supports full class communication through Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language).…”

“…Outcomes-based evaluations of Lesson Study have concluded that it can have a significant impact on the development of teachers classroom practice (Guerrero, 2014;Ó Murchú, 2011). Due to its nature it can minimize the risk of pedagogical colonization (Allen et al, 2017) and has been used successfully for teacher development in relation to teaching children with autism (Norwich & Jones, 2014). These factors suggests that the Inclusive Classrooms Project should explore the Lesson Study approach in relation to meeting teachers explicit requests for practical real life skills development and as a vehicle for developing classrooms practices for children with autism within Indonesia.…”

Integrating Online Learning in Schools: Issues and Ways Forward for Developing Countries

“…Poor teacher training, absenteeism, and morale, also low pay and lack of subject knowledge, are key aspects in Papua's lower student learning outcomes (Allen et al, 2018;Chang et al, 2014). Teacher non-attendance at schools and low-level qualifications are other issues which impede quality education to a greater degree in Papua than in other parts of Indonesia (Allen et al, 2018;McKenzie et alk., 2014;Sparrow & Vothknecht, 2011;UNICEF, 2019).…”

“…Developing countries like Indonesia have used many strategies over the past few decades to improve student learning outcomes, including a focus on ICT in schools and increased training to overcome lack of initial teacher preparatory programs, as well as various approaches to address poor teacher attendance and morale (Allen et al, 2018). Despite various strategies utilized across Indonesia, there has been little overall improvement in student results, with significant issues for some groups of children (Luschei, 2017).…”

Ugandan Teachers Epistemological Beliefs and Child-Led Research: Implications for Developing Inclusive Educational Practice

“…Many Ugandan teachers may struggle, and cease, to implement pedagogical approaches that are less traditional and more pupil centred (Sikoyo, 2010). It has been argued that this is because these approaches are culturally inappropriate and impractical (Guthrie 2013 cited in Mafunganyika, 2016) and that this is why 'transplanting' approaches from other educational cultures and contexts is unlikely to be successful (Allen, Hyde, Whannel, & O'Neill, 2017). Mafunganyika (2016) argues that this difficulty can be best understood at the level of teachers' conceptualisations of learning i.e.…”