The Relevance of the Zambian Languages Teacher Education Programme to the School’s Needs and Aspirations: The Case of One Public University in Zambia

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish the relevance of the Zambian Languages Teacher Education programme at one of the public universities in Zambia to the needs and aspirations of Zambian secondary schools. The sample size of the study was fourteen (14) comprising six fourth year Zambian Languages students, two teacher educators from the Literature and Languages Department for the content courses and two teacher educators from the Languages and Social Sciences Education Department for the methods courses. The study also included four former students at the university who studied Linguistics and African Languages (LAL) programme at bachelor’s degree level. Interviews, focus group discussions and document analysis were used to collect data from the participants. The study findings established that the programme was partially relevant as it equipped the trainee teachers with the right content, teaching methodology, revitalised cultural awareness and built teacher confidence in schools. However, the programme exhibited multiple weaknesses that included lack of programme harmonisation between what was offered at the University to what graduates taught in schools. Trainee teachers had inadequate time for peer teaching (micro-teaching) as well as teaching practice, lacked teaching and learning material. The programme had a biased instruction in one Zambian language and English instead of teaching in all the regional official languages which were to be taught by the teachers in schools.