Zambezia (1980), VIII (i).PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENT*S. F. W. ORBELLInstitute of Education, University of ZimbabweTHE RECENT ELECTION manifestos of our major political parties laid con-siderable emphasis upon the need, and their intention, to accelerate the develop-ment of education as a fundamental requirement for the socio-economicgrowth of the country. They also make special reference to the great impor-tance of strengthening teacher education. That distinguished Nigerian, DrHenry Carr who was the first African inspector of schools in 1898, remarkedto the effect that the best designed education system would remain nothingmore than a blueprint without good teachers to implement it in the classroom.To put it another way, an education system is only as good as its teachers,and as the International Labour Organization recently advocated:The quality of teacher, the kind of people attracted to teaching andthe way they are taught is at the heart of all problems of edu-cational quality. No reform of education is worth its salt if itdoes not address itself to this range of questions.1Rarely, however, has this importance attached to teacher training beenmore clearly illustrated than in beleaguered Britain during the Second WorldWar. In response to a proposal made by the Cross Commission in Britain(1890), universities began at the turn of the century to involve themselves inthe training of teachers for elementary schools.2 The system which evolved, andwhich can loosely be regarded as an English pattern of teacher training, hadbecome so untidy, that large-scale planning commenced in late 1942 in orderto prepare for post-war needs. The McNair Committee 3 issued a far-reachingreport in 1944 recommending that Area Training Organizations (A.T.O.s) beset up 'to supervise courses and foster co-operation and development',4 andthat these A.T.O.s be based on the local university. 'We are convinced', saidmembers of the committee, 'that it is the University and no other body whichmust be the focus of the education and training of teachers in the future.' 5Once this approach was accepted and universities established Institutesof Education from 1947 on, a new thrust in teacher training became evident.*An inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Rhodesia on 20 March 1980.1 M. Blaugh, Education and the Employment Problem in Developing Countries (Geneva,I.L.O., 1974), 82.2 University of London Institute of Education Prospectus 1978-1979, 11.3 Teachers and Youth Leaders [The McNair Report] (London, H.M.S.O., 1944).4 University of London Institute of Education Prospectus 1978 -1979, 11.5 B. A. Fletcher, A Report of the First Leverhulme Intercollegiate Conference Held atU.C.&N.. (Salisbury, Edinburgh Press, 1958).2728 PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENTTwo main types of Institute developed. Firstly, there were those which becamelittle more than servicing bodies, monitoring the examination, of, and awardingcertificates to college students, and providing short courses for teachers inservice. Such Institutes were not genuinely integrated into the universities,and died, as it were, of malnutrition.The second type of institute followed the McNair line far more closely.This type enjoyed almost complete departmental autonomy, apart from itsfinancing. To all intents and purposes, they became self-sustaining organizations.As they grew it was very difficult indeed to avoid becoming closed-in onthemselves in their thinking. Perhaps academic obesity rather than malnutritionwas their lot.There was, however, one marvellous exception. In 1902 the London DayTraining College in association with the University of London had come intobeing. Under the remarkable leadership, first of Sir John Adams and then ofSir Percy Nunn, Sir Fred Clarke and Dr G. B. Jeffrey in succession, theCollege built up a national and international reputation in teacher education.In 1949 under Dr Jeffrey it became 'a federation of University departmentsand affiliated colleges of education'.6 Thus, the London Institute wasmonitoring and guiding first-level courses in its associated colleges, as well asteaching high-level courses in its own buildings.While the Second World War was raging, the British Government turnedits attention to the needs of post-war education. One outcome (the reportsof the Royal Commission on Higher Eduation in the Colonies) recommendedthe development of universities in East and West Africa and the West Indies,and great emphasis was placed on the need for teacher training. Africa wasbeginning to respond rapidly to changing circumstances. In post-war colonialterritories, there were important demands for more and more education, anduniversities were being established. It seemed appropriate, therefore, to trans-late to Africa the concept of Institutes of Education, to play a key role similarto what had proved generally successful in Britain. However, the idea of anInstitute enjoying complete autonomy could not be tenable in the earlydays of independent African States. There was understandable suspicionthat autonomy based on an overseas ideology might not be compatible withemergent nationalism. On the other hand the concept of an Institute as largelya servicing unit for the formal education system was too narrow in the Africancontext. Developing nations had widely ranging needs. Admittedly, many ofthese needs were based on education, and could be assisted by the skills andexperience of the teachers, but development had to have a wider base thanthe school system. Thus it was that the idea of an Institute of Education inthe African sense was far closer to the London model than to any other one.The British Colonial Office set up two important education commissionsin 1950 Š the Binns Commission in East Africa and the Jeffrey Commissionin West Africa. The two Commissions reported in 1951 and were followed by6 University of London Institute of Education Prospectus 1978 -1979, 11.S. F. W. ORBELL 29' the Cambridge Conference in 1952 to discuss educational policy in BritishAfrica. The conference report recommended:1 The Institute is very largely a federation of the teachers collegesthemselves. It has a double duty. Through its constituent colleges,Ł it carries almost the whole responsibility for pre-service training,and it has also to take a good deal of the responsibility for sus-taining the teacher in the work of his profession.7'Double duty', yes Š but even this did not go far enough for Africa. Despitethe welcome suggestion that the field of in-service training needed attention,it fell to Professor L. J. Lewis, who is now the Principal of this university, in* the first really effective Institute established in Africa in 1949 (in Ghana) tolink the teacher-training role with that of community development. This in-novation was not lost on Professor Basil Fletcher who had founded one ofthe first post-McNair Institutes at the University of Bristol in 1947.I It was this same Professor Fletcher who was the first professor to be ap-pointed by Dr Walter Adams, the Principal of the University College ofRhodesia and Nyasaland, twenty-five years ago, almost to the day. In 1956,as Director of the Institute and Vice-Principal of the University College,Fletcher delivered the very first inaugural lecture. He chose as his theme 'TheEducated Man', and reviewed the gifts and qualities that should typify the( product of this Institute, observing that 'a person cannot be called educatedunless he is endowed with a sense of proportion such as flows from a per-ception of the wholeness of knowledge'.8 He went on to say that 'there arecertain presuppositions of thought that demand obedience and certain standardsof excellence that must never be dethroned'.9He was not purely a 'university man', one lost in the world of academe,but was both practical and realistic. Thus, he saw his Institute as giving alead in the whole field of professional education, which field included com-munity development and adult education. Furthermore, he recognized theneed to develop a partnership in understanding with commerce and industry,and to create opportunities for sharing experience with university colleagues> in other parts of Africa. Over the period 1957 - 60 there were innumerableconferences, and twelve publications flowed from the Institute, but only fivedealt with the teacher-training aspect.10 As more and more needs were un-covered, the University made the important and very wise decision to splitthe Institute in two. One continued with its main concern (that of teachersi in the school system); the other became the Institute of Adult Education in1961 under Townsend Coles. Thus, this university's initial contribution7 United Kingdom Colonial Office and the Nuffield Foundation, African Education : AStudy of Education Policv and Practice in British Tropical Africa (Oxford, Oxford Univ. Press,1953), 165.8 B. A. Fletcher, The Educated Man (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1956), 3.9 Ibid.10 B. A. Fletcher, The Work of an Institute of Education in Central Africa (Salisbury,Univ. Coll. of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, n.d. [c. 1961]), 151.30 PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENTtowards development was very strong and the pattern of these two Instituteswas well laid.That year Professor Fletcher retired, to be succeeded by Professor AlanMilton. How to serve and reach the common man was one of the majorthemes in his 1963 inaugural lecture, Teachers outside the Walls. He spokewith obvious concern for the future in a year when the Federation was beingdissolved, and he made the criticism that 'education in this country, in itsformal aspect, was not an indigenous affair'.11 He made two further points,the first being that the aspirations for a better education system, to use hisown words, 'would be realized only as the University was seen as the copingstone of a national system of education'.12 The second was his 'plea for adirect attention to the quality of primary school teaching . . . [for] primaryeducation is basic in the fullest sense'. "Professor R. C. Bone, appointed in 1967, delivered his inaugural twoyears later. He chose as his title Et Nos Mutamur. The Future of TeacherEducation 14 and based his theme on the medieval Latin tag, which trans-lated reads, 'Times change, and we change in them'. He spoke of the chasmsdividing the time when Fletcher, Milton and he were appointed, observingthat 'the mood in education today ... is one of confusion and very con-siderable pessimism'.15 There must have been a strong 'tongue-in-cheek' sideto this remark, for there were really neither chasms nor pessimism. ProfessorFletcher opened the Institute in the bloom of Federation, Professor Miltonfollowed as this Federation wilted, Professor Bone as Rhodesia declared itselfindependent, and I myself as the country entered into a phase of politicalconfusion, now happily coming to an end with the prospect before us of aperiod of dynamic growth and development in Zimbabwe.The dominant theme, however, as we review the past quarter of a century,is; not one of pessimism. Rather is it that each Director has been stronglyinfluenced by the needs of the changing times, and has developed the sensi-tivity to recognize these factors. Each Director has been a chapter, as it were,in our university's response to change, a role which the country's nationaluniversity is bound to play if it is not to succumb to 'Institutional Menopause',to use the telling phrase of Gieck, a recent American writer on change andobsolescence in ageing institutions.16I spoke of 'the beginning of a new venture'. Over the past five years orso we have been able, rather dramatically, to change course, thanks to theexcellent groundwork of my predecessors. We now have five Associate Col-leges of Education, in Bulawayo, Gwelo and Umtali, where students under-11 A. Milton, Teachers outside the Walls (London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1964), 4.12 Ibid., 19.13 Ibid., 20.14 R. C. Bone, Et Nos Mutamur: The Future of Teacher Education (Salisbury, Univ. Coll.of Rhodesia, 1970), 6.15 Ibid., 7.16 J. E. Gieck, 'Institutional menopause : Change and obsolescence in ageing institutions',Torch (1979), LII, 12.S. F. W. ORBELL31take a three-year concurrent study of education under the professionalguidance of the Institute, before they are presented for final examination forthe University Certificate in Education. In February this year, the capacityof these colleges was a little over 3,000 students. There are, however, morecolleges which have declared their intention formally to seek associate status,and the Ministry of Education has stated that it will require all teachers'colleges, present and future, to achieve the standard required by the University,or else they will be closed. Admittedly this move will markedly increase thework of the Institute of Education, particularly as it is expected that theremight be up to ten Associate Colleges in a few years' time. Nevertheless, it isa welcome move.Let me return to Professor Fletcher's remark about 'Certain standards ofexcellence that must never be dethroned', a remark that I strongly endorse.We no longer have the need to be concerned about the suspicion of Africansthat the maintenance of standards is a ploy to keep them out. We are dealingwith the more positive slogan, 'No second class for Africans', and it is inthis sense that this further raising of standards is seen as being an importantcontribution to the future, particularly as we have not, in the past few years,been short of high-quality candidates for our courses.Before looking to these future contributions, it seems necessary to explainwhat is meant by an Associate College . Fundamentally, the basis of associ-ation is that the University agrees to establish a particular award for which itis not itself teaching, and to frame and administer a scheme of examinationof students submitted for that award from an institution approved by theSenate of the University. The University requires, for that approval, to satisfyitself:(i) that candidates had reached specified minimum academicentry qualifications prior to embarking on the course of studyleading to its award;(ii) that the syllabuses and schemes being taught at the institutionwishing to submit candidates are appropriate in content,sufficiently deep in penetration and adequate in allocationof time;(iii) that the course of study extends over a stipulated number ofacademic years or terms;(iv) that the teaching staff have the qualifications, experienceand competence to teach at the level of the particular award;(v) that the teaching institution is sufficiently well equipped infacilities for study and training for the courses to be under-taken at a level that makes them examinable by the Univer-sity. These facilities include the library, laboratories, work-shops, studies, equipment and so on; and(vi) that the costs of administering the scheme at least with re-gard to examiners' fees, travel, consumables, etc., are ac-counted for in a separate 'examinations vote' to which theUniversity itself does not contribute.Subject to these constraints, the colleges are free in the main to develop theirown programmes of education, experiment with techniques and methods, andrespond to the changing needs of the schools as identified by the Ministry of32 PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENTEducation.Operating this scheme of association is a very important and demandingtask, but per se it is not enough for a university department. To limit ourwork to monitoring the courses in these institutions would be to sink into'the rapid obsolescence that overtakes the somnolent today'.17 To leave theColleges to their own devices, once they have come into a close link with theUniversity, and to concentrate on our own high-level teaching is to face thedanger of developing theories which are 'neither distilled from nor conduciveto good practice'. '8 It seems that our current practice, derived from the patternevolved in London, is highly desirable for a developing country. Apart fromoperating the scheme of association, a variety of courses is taught within the(central) Institute, by which is meant at the University site itself. One featureof the relationship worthy of comment is the provision which enables stu-dents, who attain the necessary standards of qualification, to be able to pro-ceed to the University, to read for the final year of the Bachelor of Educationdegree. To date, 112 students have graduated.A second major course is for selected experienced teachers who follow aprogramme designed to prepare them to become lecturers in the Colleges. Wealso mount a qualifying course for practising teachers who wish to read forthe B.Ed, degree, and a similar course for teachers of specialist subjects inschools in order to prepare them for the Diploma in Teacher Education pro-gramme. These activities are indicative of the kind of service an Institute canand ought to provide, offering flexibility of approaches and wider oppor-tunity for all involved in the teaching profession and education generally, thedimension of opportunity being limited only by the resources that can be madeavailable.The point which I wish to make is that the work of this Institute is almostequally divided between the realities and practicalities of first-level teachertraining on the one hand, and the academic study of teacher education at ahigher level on the other hand. An important adjunct to all this is that ofresearch. In short, the picture is one of an institution that is practical, theo-retical, and forward-looking.What then of the school system for which it prepares teachers? Walker,writing mainly of Britain five years ago, had this to say of teaching:In the face of the explosion of knowledge, we are often told thatour concern as teachers should be to give our pupils the means ofaccess to knowledge. This, surely, is only a half-way stage. Whatfollows is the task Š to help pupils to manipulate knowledge, tomake judgements, draw conclusions, make comparisons, suggestpredictions. This is what school-based education is all about, andin my experience we aren't particularly good at it.1917 Ibid., 12.18 H. H. Penny, 'The preparation of teachers for territory schools Š a very tough job',Papua New Guinea Journal of Education (1979), VI, 48.19 G. Walker, 'How common can you get?', The Times Education Supplement (26 Sept.1975), 23.S. F. W. ORBELL 33Of course we aren't. But we make ourselves better at it so long as we recog-nize our weaknesses and can demonstrate that, when the constraints are re-moved, we can remedy our defects. With all due humility I would dare suggestthat in various ways my predecessors have demonstrated the valuable role anInstitute can play in this matter. I trust that in what may be described as myapprentice years, I have followed well in their footsteps and begun to treadnew paths. Professor Millins of Lancaster University, looking to the future,observes that it is not too difficult for most teachers, early in their career, toachieve a basic survival level of classroom competence:For some, however, it can imperceptibly become a plateau ofendeavour, a bulwark of tradition and a refuge against the blan-dishments of initiative and experimentation, until the preservationof the plateau is the educational philosophy of its practitioner.20And not only 'of its practitioner', I would add, for a sort of mass rigidityseems to obtain in most school systems. Warwick puts it well, in stating that:'to depend wholly upon initial preparation and what cumulative wisdomattended one's years within the classroom is to court academic sterility andennui'.21 There is much evidence in similar vein from writers in Africa. Writingin Lesotho, Hawes says that stop-gap arrangements, such as the employmentof itinerant enthusiasts, have weaknesses andso also has the more general principle of starting potentially power-ful innovations at half-power. Innovation is littered with the wrecksof good ideas hastily implemented. Each bit of flotsam serves asfuel to the fires of conservatives who oppose change in the nameof maintaining standards.22Writing of Botswana, he says that the policy which has evolved in that countryin the early 1970s was prompted by the realization that syllabus change onits own achieved very little. Changes in the classroom were the only sure markof qualitative reform.23In a nutshell, it is not good enough (except in a static society) to teachyoung people once and in one course how to teach and what to teach. To dothat and no more is to encapsulate thinking, and thus the composite intellectof a people, in one moment of time. The cardinal principle of teaching is thatthe starting point must always be what the pupil brings with him to his school.The good teacher then goes on from that point. I do not need to impress onyou how significantly different our young child of 1980 is from his father asfar as what he brings with him to school is concerned. The base line, as wemight term it, is of necessity much stronger.20 P. K. C. Millins, 'Looking to the future', in D. W. Warwick (ed.), New Directions in theProfessional Training of Teachers (Lancaster, Univ. of Lancaster Press, 1974), 55.21 D. Warwick, School-Based In-Servke Education (London, Oliver and Boyd, 1975), 9.22 H. W. R. Hawes, 'Curriculum and Curriculum Development in Lesotho. An AfricanPrimary Curriculum Survey' (London, Univ. of London Institute of Education, mimeo, 1976), 39.23 H. W. R. Hawes, 'Curriculum and Curriculum Development in Botswana. An AfricanPrimary Curriculum Survey* (London, Univ. of London Institute of Education, mimeo, 1976), 20.34 PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENTTurning now to Black citizens of Zimbabwe, we can expect the baseline twenty years hence to be not only much stronger but also significantlydifferent in many ways, especially in so far as the people's social status,aspirations and expectations are concerned. We could expect this, but ourexpectations will not be realized if our young teachers teach one way in 1980(because that is what they have been taught) and the same way at the turn ofthe century (because they have learnt nothing different).Professor Wandira, Vice Chancellor of Makerere University, and recentlywriting on Africa from Columbia University, speaks of 'the return of the ageof faith . . . [when] revolution by education has come into vogue. Education isstill seen as the means of salvation'. It seems safe to submit that our teachingforce is the most important single social element in the process of liftingZimbabwe into, not just a political independence, but a true independence,one not heavily reliant on imported skills, finance and backing. Wandira seesthe particular contribution of the educator to the birth of a new society aslying in providing 'a critical education which can help form critical attitudes'.He in turn criticizes even the most radical African States whose 'present efforts. . . appear mundane'.24 But what to do about it? To effect the all importantchange, 'it seems inevitable that every Teacher training college and everyUniversity teacher educator institution [in Africa] should regard in-serviceeducation as one of its central tasks'.25 To follow up this advice will be ex-pensive, very expensive. Writing on education in national development, thenoted economist, Vaizey, had this to say, some ten years ago:To adapt modern pedagogic methods is to adopt an expensiveeducation system. In a developing country such a system will beeven costlier than it seems, because its productivity will be low,owing to the inappropriate backgrounds of the students and of theteachers. Failure rates, for example, will be high.26Nevertheless, what we must have are sound pedagogic methods, adapted to oursituation, and the key surely lies in updating and redirecting our teachers. AnInstitute of Education has a specific role to play in this process in partnershipwith other departments of the Faculty of Education, the Associated Colleges,the Ministry of Education and the professional organization of teachers.Two recent writers severely castigate universities for remaining outsidethe main stream of these processes. Cairns charges that many universities inWestern society are typified by a lack of involvement in the basic educationneeds of their adults: instead of providing remedial education for dis-advantaged, under-educated but able adults, they provide only continuingeducation for educated and relatively advantaged adults.27 Hughes, writing last24 A. Wandira, 'Teacher education for mass education in Africa', Teachers College Record(1979), LXXX1, i, 84-5.25 Ibid., 89.26 J. Vaizey, 'The production process in education', in D. Adams (ed.), Education in NationalDevelopment (London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971), 46.27 J. C. Cairns, 'Adult functional illiteracy in Canada", Convergence (1977), X, i, 50.S. F. W. ORBELL 35year on 'eduation, work and unemployment in the 1980s' is even more severe.He doubts whether 'Universities have the will, let alone the competence, todevelop themselves into a process of continuing education of a mass kind, asagainst what they are now, namely a "front loading" of higher education,that is the highly qualified 18-plus block going through'.28Whatever validity or otherwise there may be in such strictures, I dare tosuggest they do not apply significantly to our university. In so saying I offeras evidence the relationships between the University and the community atlarge which the Institute of Education and the Institute of Adult Educationprovide, to say nothing of the relationships which other faculties such asMedicine, Engineering and Agriculture provide. With the renewed emphasisupon service to the community implicit in the latest Triennial Review of theUniversity's intentions, the Institute of Education, and its associated depart-ments of the Faculty of Education, have a special responsibility in developingprogrammes of teaching and research directly related to identified needs.Perhaps this is a form of 'front loading of higher education', but the differenceis that our products become the front-line troops,, coal-face workers, or what-ever one calls them, and they certainly do become involved on a very broadfront.Conscious that this is Africa, and that we are in a hurry, I hope to beable to persuade our University Senate that we must open the doors morewidely. What I think we must do, however, while having full regard for quality,is to develop ways and means for persons of diverse qualifications with provenworth and complete commitment to be able to improve their professionalcompetence and their career prospects. Let them write a type of entranceexamination, and they will do so in large numbers despite a high examinationfee. Those who perform well, I suggest, should then be allowed to pursue apart-time qualifying course, the successful completion of which ought togive entrance to our diplomas and other courses. Those who succeed willthereby find opening before them the opportunity for progress which stretchesfrom the University Certificate in Education to our Doctorate of Philosophy.Initially, the numbers will be few, but experience elsewhere suggests that thetiny stream will quickly grow into a strong flow enriching the whole educationsystem.Thrust in two other areas of more traditional in-service work is needed.We need to encourage and widen the sort of workshop approach which theMinistry of Education is promoting. These brief courses provide more directinsight into new knowledge and skills for dealing with current teaching prob-lems and have an immediate impact in the classroom. This up-dating procedurehas its limitations, however, for it is often confined to the input of time-restricted information and to teachers who are otherwise barely changed. Ofeven greater importance is a meaningful, co-ordinated plan of in-service"s J. Hughes, 'liducation, work and unemployment in the 1980V, Education Research (1979),XXII, 8.36 PARTNERSHIP IN TRANSITION AND DEVELOPMENTeducation. The best of these courses are of a sandwich nature, comprising asubstantial full-time element, and are designed to bring about a behaviouralchange.Nevertheless, we cannot do it all, even though we have excellent workingrelations with the Ministry of Education, which itself is now vigorously ad-dressing the problem. I firmly believe that a considerable widening of the scaleof in-service work is possible by regarding the Associate Colleges as satellitesof the University, once the much enlarged scheme of association has stabilized.For the Colleges to mount workshops based on the practicalities of classroomsis healthy realism for lecturers, while to engage in higher level teaching,beyond the pre-service stage, obviates the 'academic sterility and ennui' thatI spoke of earlier.Whatever one's views on this subject may be, hard economic facts oughtnot to be ignored. In an editorial of The Times Higher Education Supple-ment of 25 January 1980 one reads that colleges of education in Britain 'arethe most cost-effective area of higher education' and also that 'the collegesand institutes represent a valuable and distinctive strand of higher education'.It is highly probable that their value in Zimbabwe is similarly high. I welcomethe encouragement of the Ministry to regard their Colleges additionally asresource centres, and I look to the day when these Colleges can play a morevital role in in-service training. They are already in association with us, and Ibelieve that this relationship will grow healthily. I can pledge the Institute ofEducation to play a strong role. Once we are operating more fully in thesense I have outlined, we can and we will help bring a new vibrancy andeffectiveness to our whole school system.