Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the teacher change process and understand how the variability of primary school teachers’ in Bangladesh implementation of innovative pedagogies, such as active learning, reflects attitudes, behaviors, and concerns about the new education policy promoting high stakes exams. Qualitative data was collected from a sample of 10 teachers in 10 rural primary schools. Interviews were also conducted with staff responsible for the teachers’ professional development. Four main findings emerged. First, teachers suggested that the exams influenced their behavior and led them to question the pedagogic appropriateness of active learning. Second, the increasing focus on exam results seemed indicative of a larger trend towards placing greater value on high stakes exams. Third, exams were to serve as a common standard of outcomes for all students, yet deficiencies in technical preparation, development of concepts and methods of competency-based assessment, and clarity about purposes and use of the assessment have become obstacles to sound teacher practice and undermine the purposes of assessment. Fourth, donor support for assessment and high stakes examination at the primary level has provided legitimacy to problematic assessment policy and practices.
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- 1.
Bangladesh has two kinds of madrasas: Alia madrasas, which are privately owned but supervised by the Bangladesh Madrasa Education Board and Quomi madrasas, which are unregistered madrasas which constitute a “nonformal” stream of religious education that remain outside the scope of government regulations and do not receive government support. The ebtedayee madrasas are the institutions providing primary education within the Alia madrasa system. Today, the majority of graduates of Alia madrasas are considered to be “modernists” and they typically merge into the general stream of higher education by continuing their academic studies in public and private colleges and universities (Asadullah and Chaudhury 2006).
- 2.
BRAC is the largest national non-government development organization in Bangladesh. Founded in 1972, it currently operates the largest private, secular education program in the world, with 15,000 pre-primary schools and over 30,000 non-formal primary schools.
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Park, J., Ahmed, M. (2015). Quality with Equity in Primary Education: Implications of High Stakes Assessments on Teacher Practice in Bangladesh. In: Brown, C. (eds) Globalization, International Education Policy and Local Policy Formation. Policy Implications of Research in Education, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4165-2_7
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