TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD AND PRIMARY EDUCATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF NIGERIA, GERMANY AND GHANA

Abstract

Teachers in the school system, most especially, in early years education, can be considered as the most important element in the educational programme because the teachers are responsible for the implementation of the educational policies and curriculum to achieve the educational goals. The importance of competent teachers to the school system can in no way be overemphasised, especially in the early years, where the foundations are built. The quality of early childhood educators trained in Nigeria, in terms of pedagogical practices expected in early years education, has been a matter of concern. The quality of pedagogical practices, both in public-owned schools, where there is low availability of resources and in privately owned schools, where the resources are available, has been reported to be more teacher-centred. The major reason for the low quality in pedagogical practices is the quality of teacher training received by the educators. One of the ways to have insight into the quality of teacher preparation is to compare it with what is obtained in other societies. Therefore, this study compared teacher preparation in Nigeria with what is obtained in one developed nation (Germany) and one developing nation (Ghana). The study adopted a phenomenological approach with content analysis and interviews adopted for data collection. A thematic approach was adopted for data analysis. It was discovered that a significant difference exists in early years teacher preparation programmes between developed nations (Germany) and developing nations (Nigeria and Ghana). The differences were found in entry requirements, programme structure and practical experiences exposed to pre-service teachers. Recommendations were proffered based on the findings.