Tanzania
Tanzania Change Project workshops will take place in 2021. In the meantime, teacher educators who are interested in starting work on ESD teacher education Change Projects can consult other examples from the projects being developed in participating countries and make contact with the UNESCO office to share their work.
We will also be sharing examples of earlier ESD Change Projects that were developed in Tanzania from the ESD alumni network.
News & Events
Tanzania embarks on the Sustainability Starts with Teachers programme
Tanzania is the eighth country to join the Sustainability Starts with Teachers (SST) programme. A virtual workshop held on 27 and 28 April 2021 kick-started the implementation of the programme in Tanzania. Over 50 Teacher Educators, Technical Vocational Education, and Training educators attended the event from all corners of the country, senior government officials and Education for Sustainable...
Change Project: Making learning practical and transformative through teaching/learning aids
Lameck Makuri, Butimba Teachers’ College
The ESD challenge which the CoP members found through their research was firstly, that student teachers were not using teaching aids; secondly, that cheap or no cost teaching aids were required to support teachers in the classroom to enhance the children’s education; and thirdly that was also litter problem on the campus. To address this challenge the CoP initiated a change project to equip the student teachers to make their own teaching and learning aids by upscaling waste found on the campus. 640 student teachers participated in the change project and the 2022 teaching practical assessments indicated that a greater range of teaching activities were included in school lessons because of the availability of upcycled teaching aids.
To achieve their aims, the CoP did further research at three neighbouring schools to understand the teachers’ perspectives on how they could use their indigenous knowledge to prepare and use teaching aids. Student teachers at Butimba Teachers’ College were asked to collect waste materials to make teaching and learning aids and to clear a room to store the waste and/or the upcycled aids. As part of the students’ Communication Skills module they were required to use the internet to learn about up-cycling and “get instructions on how to assemble those waste materials to get the images needed for teaching and learning to create
teaching aids” (Esther). The number of student teachers who participated was 640 and the CoP divided them into groups of ten to work together. The teaching materials created from waste by each group of student teachers were assessed by the CoP and ranked from A – D. The items which scored an A, B or C were kept in a storeroom for teaching aids and made available for on-going use. Difficulties faced by the CoP were timetable clashes and scarcity of funds. The next phase of this change project is to increase the scale of the project and include the community and potentially other schools in the Five Lakes District.
Change Project: Preserving water in the Arumeru District
Joshua Kuboja, University of Arusha
The sustainable development challenge identified by Joshua and Zablon was the preservation of water in the water scarce district of Arumera. The aim of this project was to include the university students in this environmentally sensitive project and to include community based activities in the geography syllabus. The students engaged with the community by conducting participatory and observational activities. The aim was to get to know the community and to find how they saw the economic happenings around the water sources. Following a brain-storming workshop the students decided that the biggest impact could be to plant trees and to provide the necessary training to the communities to support and sustain the tree planting initiative. The students returned to the communities to implement the training and tree-planting plan which included sessions with the community leaders to sustain the achievements in each community.
Challenges which the CoP and the students faced were that no budget had been set aside for this project. They found that in some communities it was hard to convince the inhabitants that this project was for their own good. The students found that it was difficult to cover a large distance as they had to walk to the water sources and the communities. Nevertheless, the results of the tree planting were positive and the CoP plan to plant more trees, save more water sources and in the future to expand to areas outside the Meru District.
Change Project: ICT in teaching and learning by teacher educators and student teachers
Joshua Okelo, Bunda Teachers’ College
The ESD challenge identified by the CoP was that the quality of education was being hampered by the lack of integration of ICT skills in the teaching and learning practices. The CoP also identified that the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy for Basic Education (2007) and the Education and Training Policy (2014) documents did not include ESD. The CoP’s view was that the change project would reduce poverty by enabling teacher educators and student teachers to access materials online, to prepare or buy such materials at reduced costs. The college was spending considerable funds on purchasing teaching and learning resources, thus, any monies saved by the use of ICT could be used to provide for other/additional educational activities. The CoP aimed to train teacher educators, student teachers and in-service teachers from two surrounding schools to a) design suitable teaching and learning activities, to b) prepare lessons, and to c) teach using computer based technologies.
At the time of writing the report the ICT tutors were teaching student teachers how to use MS Word, MS Excel, how to search for materials online, and how to create MS PPT presentations. The in-service teachers from the Balili Primary School were also receiving instruction on MS Excel. The change project went further than provision of ICT skills and embraced the goal of creating positive digital identities and personal learning networks for the collaboration and professional growth of the teacher educators, student teachers and in-service teachers. The CoP had planned to scale their activities and to include other local schools in future.
Change Project: Integrating education for sustainable development in University teaching and learning practices: A study case of UDOM -Tanzania
Theresia Philemon, University of Dodoma (UDOM)
UDOM is a large university which has capacity for 40 000 students. The ESD challenge identified was that few courses incorporated sustainability. To address this perceived challenged the CoP did and extensive review of all the under- and post graduate courses and found that across UDOM of the 134 degree programmes only 23 under- and post graduate courses included aspects of ESD (17%).
In response to this finding the CoP engaged with the UDOM management and curriculum review process. They initiated field visits for students to be exposed to a) eco-agriculture first hand which included both crop and animal husbandry; and b) EIA sites, for example, a visit to the Standard Guage Railway Project. In addition to continuing with the activities mentioned, the CoP intends to draw the local communities into the ESD projects through student outreach.
Change Project: 21st century skills in teaching and learning
Happiness, Korogwe teacher’ College
The CoP identified that the modules taught to student teachers did not include ESD elements. To address this challenge the CoP modified the teaching and learning requirements for the Block Teaching Practice. Each student teacher was required to pick a subject, for example, biology, chemistry, ICT and mathematics, and to introduce ESD into their pedagogical approach. The student teachers were encouraged to use the resources which were all around them ‘as platform for action’ namely, the existing pre-service training programmes, teachers at the schools, teacher educators at the college, the school environment, YouTube videos, and surrounding community.
They were encouraged to analyse the energy, soil, water and waste/water infrastructure of every campus to find ESD opportunities. Some students started gardening projects at the school which involved the pupils and their parents while others created technological tools for teaching science subjects and other students involved the community. The student teachers responded so positively to the ESD initiative and the CoP found it difficult to accommodate the many different ideas as each student initiated their ‘own change project’. Progress continues.
Tarime Teachers’ College
The CoP identified two ESD challenges, the first was that neither the teacher educators nor the student teachers used ICT to improve their teaching and learning practices, and secondly, there was a need to create a culture and practice of sustainable environmental preservation amongst the college community. They chose to address these challenges by teaching ICT skills to the tutors to in turn teach the student teachers, for example the use of smart phones to document student learning and sports activities. This also encouraged the use of the institution based E-learning system. The ICT element of the change project was horizontally scaled to other academic departments; and the students and tutors are now able to access and upload teaching and learning materials. The change project was successfully vertically scaled as the CoP initiated a vision and mission review for the institution. Tarime Teachers’ College adopted the following:
A: COLLEGE VISION
“To be a sustainable model institution in the provision of quality teacher training in Tanzania”
B: COLLEGE MISSION
“Preparing effective teachers that inspire creativity through modern technology and sustainable environment”
The CoP also created a recreational garden and embarked on a grass and tree planting initiative with the student teachers. The Student Government holds weekly competitions which reward environmental conservation. The CoP promotes the Mali Hai Club of Tanzania at the college to sustain and extend the conservation element of their change project where, “ ‘mali’ which means resources or wealth and ‘hai’ which means life or living. So, if you join the two words, it’s living wealth. So Mali Hai is about the environment and conservation.” This change project has touched the ‘ground’ as well as ‘policy’ and reached across institutional silos.