Multi-Site Teacher Education Research Project (MUSTER)

MUSTER is a collaborative research project co-ordinated from the Centre for International Education at the University of Sussex Institute of Education. It has been developed in partnership with:

· The Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
· The Institute of Education, The National University of Lesotho.
· The Centre for Educational Research and Training, University of Malawi.
· The Faculty of Education, University of Durban-Westville, South Africa.
· The School of Education, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine's Campus, Trinidad.

Financial support has been provided for three years by the British Department for International Development (DFID).

MUSTER is focused on generating new understandings of teacher education before, during and after the point of initial qualification as a teacher. Its concerns include exploring how new teachers are identified and selected for training programmes, how they acquire the skills they need to teach effectively, and how they experience training and induction into the teaching profession. The research includes analytical concerns with the structure and organisation of teacher education, the form and substance of teacher education curriculum, the identity, roles and cultural experience of trainee teachers, and the costs and probable benefits of different types of initial teacher training.

MUSTER is designed to provide opportunities to build research and evaluation capacity in teacher education in developing countries through active engagement with the research process from design, through data collection, to analysis and joint publication. Principal researchers lead teams in each country and are supported by three Sussex faculty and three graduate researchers.

This series of discussion papers has been created to provide an early opportunity to share output from sub-studies generated within MUSTER for comment and constructive criticism. Each paper takes a theme within or across countries and offers a view of work in progress.

MUSTER South Africa

Revised versions of the South African papers in this series can be found in the book Changing Patterns of Teacher Education in South Africa - Policy Practice and Prospects, edited by K.M. Lewin, M. Samuel and Y. Sayed, (Heinemann Press 2003). The book explores policy and practice in Teacher Education in South Africa and their implications for the future, representing one of few empirically grounded, policy orientated studies of teacher education in South Africa. The research presented covers critical topics of interest to those who prepare teachers and study teaching: the evolving histories of teacher education policy, shifting teacher identities, teacher supply and demand, contrasting models of teacher education delivery, college mergers and rationalisation, and the impact of HIV/AIDS on teachers and on teacher provisioning.