Lunch seminar with Prof Kwame Akyeampong, Professor of International Education and Development at the Centre for International Education, University of Sussex:
Teachers and teacher education are key to shaping the educational experiences of disadvantaged students. Prof Kwame Akyeampong argues that teacher education and teachers can and should be in the forefront of challenging stereotypes and creating learning opportunities to demonstrate that disadvantaged students, given the right conditions and support, can make similar gains as advantaged students. He argues that international education cooperation needs a sharper vision focused on how education systems can improve teacher education and teaching to bridge the learning gap between disadvantaged and advantaged students. Furthermore, he points out that the current challenge for international education cooperation will be to attend to this issue and take the opportunity of working towards systemic reform to achieve equitable learning outcomes for all students, especially those from poor backgrounds. In his conclusion, Prof Akyeampong will argue that building more effective international learning on improving learning for vulnerable students is of crucial importance for achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4 on education.
Prof Kwame Akyeampong began his academic career in Ghana at the University of Cape Coast. Until his appointment at the University of Sussex in 2004, he served as the Director of the Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast. His research interests cover teacher education in the global south, evaluation of large scale education programmes, policy and practice of education in developing country context, and mathematics education. He has a particular interest in the political economy of education systems in low-income countries.
Kwame Akyeampong’s research has aimed to offer alternative viewpoints on educational policy and practice based on critical perspectives and experiences of policy makers, school leaders, teachers and students in African education environments. He has worked on numerous international research and evaluation projects with organisations such as UNESCO, JICA, DFID and the World Bank. From 2011 to 2013, Kwame Akyeampong served as senior policy analyst with the Education for All Global Monitoring Report team in UNESCO, Paris.
Het bericht Teacher education and improving learning opportunities for vulnerable children and youth: what role for development cooperation? verscheen eerst op GCE-NL.