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International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research pp 209–232Cite as

1.6 Ethnography of Primary School Teaching in Tanzania

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on ethnographic case study and how this research strategy allows for in-depth investigations through a range of qualitative methods committed to producing complex, holistic, and detailed understandings of a situation. This research strategy was particularly useful with regard to a research project that attempted to characterise and understand how Tanzanian teachers experienced the world, the working and living conditions which they negotiated daily, and how these contributed to their practices and behaviours in the classroom. Teachers’ personal narratives were collected via three school-based ethnographic case studies located in northern Tanzania. Attention was paid to the role of interpretation in facilitating translation from Kiswahili to English, speaking with and for others, and the delineation of two types of narratives: an aspirational story of the types of personal and occupational lives that teachers wish to lead; and wider meta-narratives regarding social and institutional structures that conflict with these aspirations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All names have been changed in order to protect research participants’ privacy.

  2. 2.

    For an interpretation and application of the capability approach in a non-developing country context, see Watts’ chapter in this volume.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cambridge Education, Murdoch House, Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2RS, UK

    Sharon Tao

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  1. Sharon Tao
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Correspondence to Sharon Tao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Ghent University and K.U. Leuven, Ghent, Belgium

    Paul Smeyers

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    David Bridges

  3. Dept. of Educational Policy Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, USA

    Nicholas C. Burbules

  4. Moray House School of Education, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

    Morwenna Griffiths

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Tao, S. (2015). 1.6 Ethnography of Primary School Teaching in Tanzania. In: Smeyers, P., Bridges, D., Burbules, N., Griffiths, M. (eds) International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9282-0_11

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