Journal articles on the topic 'Teachers colleges – Ethiopia'

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the practices and challenges of continuous assessment in colleges of teachers’ education in western Oromia region. For this study, the researchers selected three colleges of teachers education purposely based on the job experience. The researchers selected Nekemte, Dembi Dollo and Shambo colleges teachers education from well, medium, lower experienced respectively. A descriptive survey design involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches was employed. 134 student-teachers and 178 college teachers were selected and participated in the study. The quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire and observation checklist and analyzed using frequency and percentage, whereas, the qualitative data interview and document analysis were analyzed using the narrative form and interpretative way. The finding of the study revealed that the extent of practicing continuous assessment in class is low. The study also showed that teachers have positive perceptions toward continuous assessment and they accepted continuous assessment as important to improve the achievement of learners. The finding disclosed that large class size, shortage of time, teachers workload, the low interest of students, large instructional content, and lack of commitment among teachers as the major factors hindering the practice of continuous assessment in colleges of teachers education. The researchers recommend that educational authorities and stockholders should make effort to students per class to manageable numbers, College administrators should allow teachers to cover the minimum workload than overloading above the standard set for the college of teachers education.

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study was to assess whether or not students and teachers were having positive attitude towards the practice of content based language instruction and to see the actual practice of it in TVET poly technic colleges. It was particularly meant to investigate students’ attitude towards the usefulness of the course, course contents, assessment and teacher’s competence. Teacher’s attitude towards the course and challenges of it if occurs were investigated. Moreover, the study was targeted to investigating the actual practice of teaching in three areas: students’ participation, teachers’ language skills and teachers’ skill in using instructional materials. The study was conducted in one Polytechnic College of Amhara Region. Generally, from the total number of 2909 trainees in four different levels; second year Level Three and Level Four trainees were purposefully selected. From the selected six departments (639 trainees), 185 were randomly selected. Regarding CBL teachers, no sample selection were needed for their number was small and easily manageable. So, the participant of the study were 6 teachers and 185 students in the college. The data were collected through questionnaire, observation and interview and the results were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The result of the study revealed that students and teachers showed positive attitude towards the usefulness of CBL courses, course contents and course assessment. However, students had negative attitude towards teachers’ competence. And teachers’ actual practice revealed that teachers did not properly apply content based language instruction to bring the desired result. The study also indicated that there were problems for its implementation due to teachers’ lack of language skills and training. The combined responses of the participants (students and teachers) revealed that the students didn’t get benefit and this impact developed because of teachers’ incompetence to implement content based language instruction. Finally, it was concluded that CBLI was not implemented as it is desired. Therefore, concerned bodies should take various measures to ameliorate the challenges.

The perception one holds towards language teaching practice governs the failure or success of teaching practice. To this end, this study aimed to assess EFL traineeteachers’ perceptions of teaching practices in four selected teacher education colleges of southern Ethiopia. To address the objectives, the study employed mixed method design. 120 EFL trainee-teachers were selected through comprehensive sampling. Questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion were data collection tools. Questionnaire was employed to examine the perceptions of EFL trainee-teachers towards school-based teaching practice. Interviews was carried out to triangulate data from questionnaire. Focus group discussion was employed to corroborate the data from questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire was administered to all 120 EFL trainee teachers. Accordingly, the quantitative data were analysed using mean and standard deviation. Qualitative data were analysed descriptively. The finding from survey data revealed that EFL trainee teachers had positive perceptions towards school-based teaching practice. The findings from interview also supported the quantitative data result. The findings from the focus group discussion also supported the quantitative and qualitative results. Furthermore, the findings from Mann-Whitney U test revealed that there were no perceptions differences between male and female students due to gender.

This study examines the extent to what the program implemented in educators' instructional process. A survey research method of mixed approach was employed by which observation, questionnaire and interview were used as data gathering tools. As a result, the overall extent to which the programme is being applied in the educators' instructional process was found to be not satisfactory due to session planning and action research that seen as not being practiced at all in the colleges. Besides, most limitations identified during observation overlap with that of our pre-service teachers diagnosed during independent teaching practice. As influential factors, three potential challenges were found and discussed in line with the desired recommendations.

This study examines the extent to what the program implemented in educators' instructional process. A survey research method of mixed approach was employed by which observation, questionnaire and interview were used as data gathering tools. As a result, the overall extent to which the programme is being applied in the educators' instructional process was found to be not satisfactory due to session planning and action research that seen as not being practiced at all in the colleges. Besides, most limitations identified during observation overlap with that of our pre-service teachers diagnosed during independent teaching practice. As influential factors, three potential challenges were found and discussed in line with the desired recommendations.

This study is mainly conducted to find out the English language needs of Customer Contact and Secretarial Operation Coordination Level IV trainees. To achieve this objective, purposive sampling technique was used to select content area teachers while comprehensive sampling technique was used to include trainees and English language teachers. A survey research was the design of this study. To this end, questionnaire and interview were employed to collect data. Both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis were used in the study. The findings of the study showed that writing, speaking, reading and listening skills are prioritized by trainees according to their order. In the area of micro skills, listening to lectures to take notes and listening to class discussions were showed as highly needed micro-skills. With regard to speaking activities, asking and answering questions and participating in whole class discussion were highly needed speaking micro-skills. Reading reference books and reading lecture notes, writing different project works like term papers, assignments and sample personal and business letters were identified as the most important speaking and writing micro-skills. Vocabulary was found more important than grammar. Most trainees reported that they find asking and answering questions and writing different project works like term papers and assignments, sample personal and business letters difficult. The reason for this might be because the courses offered are inefficient to help them develop these skills. Disparity was also found between their language problems and the courses they take. Finally, based on these findings, recommendations were also forwarded.

Purpose There is broad consensus that the implementation of education for sustainable development (ESD) requires the consideration of geographical and cultural contexts. Despite such an agreement at a theoretical level, there is so far an apparent lack of practical experiences and solid research on approaches that effectively manage to engage professional educators in higher education with ESD in the context of a developing country from the Global South. This paper aims to address this gap and present a case study from a pilot professional development program (PDP) that sought to implement and mainstream ESD among Ethiopian colleges of teacher education (CTEs) and theological seminaries (TSs). Design/methodology/approach The research presented is based on the methodology of evaluative case study research in ESD. It analyzes the PDP’s specific objectives with regard to capacity and structure building, describes major activities implemented and how these relate to the objectives and explores major outcomes of the PDP. Findings The paper presents a comprehensive training curriculum aimed at addressing ESD in Ethiopian CTEs and TSs in a whole-institution approach. Results suggest that the PDP’s approach to combine human capacity and institutional structure building was effective in supporting the implementation and mainstreaming of ESD in CTEs and TSs in Ethiopia. Originality/value This case study presents original research on a pilot Ethiopian PDP that was implemented in collaboration with two academic institutions from Ethiopia and Germany.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a persistent pattern of behaviours characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity. Teaching children with ADHD is more stressful than teaching children without the disorder. This study examines teachers reaction towards a tailored Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management programme aimed to enhance classroom management skills of a group of 10 teachers of children with ADHD symptoms in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. This is the first study to evaluate the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management programme in African context. A one-group posttest-only experimental design was implemented. Ten teachers received the tailored Incredible Years Teacher training in a full-day session once a week for six weeks. The teachers drafted intervention plans at each session and implemented the strategies the following weeks in their classrooms. The teachers participated in an individual coaching sessions every week to help with implementation of the learned strategies and assess their level of performance. The teachers completed various structured and semi-structured questionnaires at the end of the intervention. The result of the study indicated that teachers were satisfied with the delivery of the programme; its content and practicality. Teachers reported that they were happy with the effects of the programme on children’s behaviour in the classroom. The teachers also indicated that they would recommend the programme to other colleagues. In light of the findings, teachers’ reaction, limitations and implications for future research were discussed.

This research reports a case study of English majoring student-teachers’ oral communication difficulties at Arba Minch College of Teacher Education during their fourth round teaching practice. The overall aim of the study was to investigate the difficulties that English majoring student-teachers face in their oral communication in the teaching of English during their final teaching practice. To do this, the study employed qualitative and quantitative methods. Interview, questionnaire, classroom observation and focus group discussion were used to gather relevant data from student-teachers, students and ACTE instructors. The quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS software and the qualitative data were reported verbally. The results of the study revealed that the majority of the student-teachers have faced difficulties to express and share their ideas using English, to pronounce words correctly, to use grammatically correct sentences and to speak English consistently. Thus, it is better to recommend the concerned bodies should mitigate the identified problems through well built mobilizations.

The unique pre-service teacher education programme for Ethiopian immigrants, operated at a Teacher Education College, encompasses two main approaches to value-oriented education, the pluralistic and particularistic approaches. The programme constitutes a challenging ladder which can reduce the educational, social, cultural, instructional and professional gap of Ethiopians in Israel. This paper presents the humanistic theory perception and displays its characteristics in the unique programme. In order to demonstrate the humanistic education principles in the unique programme, the interviews and documents which accompanied the programme were content analysed. Findings of the case study highlight the applicable and practical components of the humanistic education principle, thus enabling operation of the programme and the success thereof. The insights obtained from the study can facilitate development of unique pre-service teacher education programmes for minority groups that experience difficulties and a gap vis-a-vis mainstream groups.

The purpose of this study was to 1) explore theories and practices in building college readiness; 2) examine the Ethiopian college readiness policy and the Ethiopian preparatory for higher education curriculum through the lens of the theories and practices around the world.Materials and methods. To achieve these objectives, extant literature reviews were conducted. The international research databases such as Scimago Journal and Country Rank, Web of Science, and Google Scholar were used for the collection of the resources. Some local government reports and research findings were accessed in hard copy. The resources reviewed in this study consist of quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods empirical research reports, and systematic reviews. This systematic review mainly focused on 1) searching for interventionist approaches, theories, and practices of building college readiness across k-12 education beyond the traditional school-based teaching and learning arena; 2) how the trends in building college readiness focused on narrowing the gap between theory and practices through student supports from early years of schooling as well as how the practices focused on managing and monitoring student learning outcomes effectively.Results. The review analysis shows that the current practice of building college readiness has spread its roots in societal and ecological grounds than ever before. For this reason, the traditional school-based college readiness building tends to be more supplemented by the advanced, research-oriented, and community-based, or ecologically grounded early support and monitoring of student progress. The Ethiopian college readiness curriculum, admission processes, and practices in teaching-learning are highly school-based and traditional compared to the contemporary practices of building college readiness around the world. The early warning and support systems are highly dependent on the teachers’ classroom tests and national assessments that are administered at some grade levels only.Conclusion. Building college readiness is a significant factor in promoting college success and higher education student learning outcomes. The contemporary college readiness and transition to higher education is highly affected by multiple personal and ecological factors, in addition to the traditional school, curriculum, and teachinglearning factors. Multiple community-based and research-oriented early interventions and support systems need to supplement the role of schooling in building college readiness. The curriculum and teaching-learning processes need to be rich enough in narrowing the gap between theories and practices. The teachers play a great role in building college readiness.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the Practices of Cluster Supervision in Jimma town primary schools. To achieve this purpose, descriptive survey research design was employed as it helps to describe the status of the cluster supervision. Accordingly, 11 primary schools were selected by using stratified sampling technique from five Cluster Resource Centers (CRCs). From the 11 primary schools 126 teachers were selected using simple random sampling technique to represent the population. Moreover, 26 school principals, 5 CRC supervisors, and 1 Education Office Supervision Coordinator were included by purposefully. Data were collected using questionnaires, interview, observation and document analysis. Frequency, percentages, Mann Whitney U Independent Sample Test and Chi-square were used to analyze the quantitative data. The qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Consequently, the obtained results revealed that the CRC supervisors were not effective in promoting teachers professional development and instructional skills. They were not also able to frequently visit schools and classroom for closer support. Even though cluster supervisors support the schools’ management in ensuring good governance and providing timely information, they were not able to adequately enhance the school principals’ planning, decision making and internal management capacity. Moreover, the supervision practice was not successful in creating strong collaboration between all stakeholders. In conclusion, cluster school supervision is highly challenged due to lack of practical competence and adequate preparation of supervisors on one hand and the poor working conditions of supervisors on the other hand. Therefore, it is recommended that Regional Education Bureau and Jimma Town Education Officers work in collaboration with Jimma College of Teacher Education and Jimma University to provide adequate training for cluster supervisors in the town Jimma town supervision coordinator should also work very closely with the cluster supervisors in identifying the important training needs and providing accordingly to improve the quality of supervision that impact positively the quality teaching and learning. Finally, the Jimma Twon Education Office should allocate adequate budget and create conductive working conditions to achieve the objectives of teaching and learning.

The participants of this study were general primary school teachers. The data gathering instrument were questionnaire. Quantitative data analysis method were employed to compute the data obtained through questionnaire. The result showed that the general actual mean score of teachers’ attitude scale is fairly greater than the cut point mean score. Due to this reason, teachers had fairly positive attitude to the inclusion of students with disabilities in to the mainstream classroom. It is recommended that the ministry of education should include special needs education courses to the college and university training program so that all the would be graduate teachers would get an opportunity to scale up their knowledge and skills about special needs education.

This easy-to-read paperback is the result of the author's desire to learn more about how students think and feel about themselves as learners in a “large urban college” pre-freshman ESL composition class. It is intended for teachers, scholars, and graduate students who are interested in how students learn to write as well as their accompanying thought processes and emotions. The main body of the book, chapters 4–7, presents “case studies of the journal writing experiences of five students” (p. 8) chosen to represent the variety of cultural backgrounds and personal involvement with the freewriting process in journal keeping. The students came from Colombia, Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, People's Republic of China, and Japan.

In the era of globalization, nations invest in their education system to be the best so that their children can fit to the order of the day through acquiring and developing the necessary skills, knowledge, values and dispositions. The institutions meant to provide these services: schools, colleges/universities, based on the education policy, play indispensable role to face the challenges of contemporary society especially in the 21st century. The article explored how Ethiopian and Indian education systems are similar and different based on the major unit of analysis viz. historical development, education and training policy, structure of the education system, teacher quality and teaching environment, and governance and financing in education. In other words, it dealt with issues where both countries differ and how they are leading the student’s progression from their pre-primary to terminal degree programs with far-reaching recommendations to augment the value of education.

In 1961 Tony Allott, then a rather young elder statesman of African law, helped to foster my interest in that subject, and my subsequent work in Ethiopia. He and several other distinguished colleagues in London also encouraged other American initiatives to assist the development of legal education and research in Africa, efforts which began in 1962, burgeoned during the ensuing decade, and then withered rapidly.The activities of the early 60s helped to generate an extraordinary number of different kinds of projects: the temporary placement of over 150 Americans in law teaching positions in African institutions; a large and wide variety of research and writing; the founding of law reporters, law journals and university institutes of African law, both within Africa and elsewhere; the flow of a substantial number of Africans to graduate legal studies in U.S. and U.K. universities; new kinds of interactions between African, British and American scholars. These activities also contributed to the emergence (notably in North America) of that amorphous, contentious field of scholarship which came to be called “law and development”, and, then, in the latter 70s, to acrimonious critiques and agonising reappraisals of much of all this effort.Tony Allott participated in, or observed, much of this history, as anyone familiar with his career and bibliography will know. I hope that this brief account of some of these past activities may be of some interest to him, and to others interested in law and social change in Africa.

Background. Early age at first sexual practice is a public health issue and now common around the world especially in the developing countries. The development of effective strategies to reduce the adverse consequences of early sexual initiation becomes real when sufficient data is available. Therefore, this study is aimed at assessing the prevalence and factors associated to early sexual initiation among college students in southwest Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 453 college students in southwest Ethiopia from April to May 2018. A two-stage stratified sampling technique was used to select the study participants. The data were collected using structured pretested self-administered questionnaire. The collected data were entered using Epi-Data version 4.2.0.0 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Logistic regression models were fitted to assess the effect of independent variables on the outcome variable. Significance was declared at p < 0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results. The proportion of early sexual initiation among college students was 17.9%, 95% CI (14.4%-24.4%). The mean age of sexual intercourse was 17.6 (±2 SD) years. Nearly three-fourths (73.4%) of the respondent’s reason for early sexual intercourse was falling in love. More than half (62.2%) of the respondents used a condom for their first sexual intercourse. The factors associated with early sexual initiation were being female ( AOR = 2.09 and 95% CI [1.17-2.35]), chewing khat ( AOR = 7.05 and 95% CI [3.81-13.1]), exposed to pornographic materials at age < 18 years ( AOR = 3.57 and 95% CI [1.94-6.89]), and poor knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases ( AOR = 8.69 and 95% CI [3.52-21.5]). Conclusion. The prevalence of early sexual initiation among college students was alarmingly high. This may be associated with a huge burden of poor sexual and reproductive health. Therefore, creating awareness of the factors and related negative sexual and reproductive health effect of early sexual initiation for young peoples through the use of mass media (television and radio), school teachers, and parents plays a paramount importance.

The evidence base continues to confirm the leveraging effect of reputation in higher education as an important strategic resource influencing a university’s visibility, attractiveness, credibility, impact, and competitive position nationally and internationally. From their expressed interest in their relative national and continental rankings, Ethiopian universities seem to have started sensing the relevance of their reputational position. In this article, we report a mixed methods study of the reputation of Addis Ababa University using data from a random sample (N = 153) of teacher training students of science, social science, and humanities and languages backgrounds under the College of Education and Behavioural Sciences (CEBS). A piloted and validated university reputation scale with open-ended items was used to illicit student opinion. In addition to descriptive statistics, inferential designs that involved correlation and ANOVA procedures were employed. Ratings for global reputation, quality of academic programs, quality of external performance, and emotional engagement are reported. Limitations and directions for further research are indicated.

The aim of the research was to adapt the 5E model cycles as daily lesson plans, uses for biology lesson delivery processes and evaluate its effectiveness in comparison with the uses of classical steps of daily lesson plans. Quasi-experimental method was used to identify variables of data collections in which recognized variables were set to compose of 1-5 rated score checklists. The 5E model cycles were adapted as daily lesson delivery processes instead of the classical steps of teaching biology that 40 trainees of biology teaching conducted peer-teaching twice using both the newly designed and the classical steps in four Colleges of Teacher Education of Ethiopia, whereby the effectiveness of using both the processes of daily lesson plans were evaluated comparatively. As a result, adapting the 5E model cycles for lesson delivery process was 50.65% more effective than using the classical steps in the process of teaching biology. The research was concluded by the fact that adapting the 5E model cycles in biology lesson delivery process played significant roles to carry out classroom discussions confidentially, construct conceptual understanding and self preparedness in learning to conduct practical education. Keywords: knack, lesson plans, peer-teaching, rated scores, variables.

Background: Violence against women is the world's most prevalent, pervasive and enduring problem. Sexual violence appears to be particularly great among adolescent girls of Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to February 2018, and 322 participants were selected via a stratified sampling technique. Data were entered using Epi-data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis, then bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was employed to see statistically significant factors. Results: Lifetime prevalence of Gender-based violence was found to be 35.1% (95% CI: 29.9 - 40.3). Risk factors significantly associated with sexual violence were living alone (AOR = 4.3 95% CI: 1.03, 18.09), having two or more number of sexual partner in life (AOR = 11.5 95% CI: 2.80, 47.16), lack of open discussion between parents and daughters about reproductive health issues (AOR= 5.05 95% CI: 1.37, 18.55), being third year student 9.06(1.96, 41.94), strict parenting style over the girls behavior (AOR = 3.4 (1.04,10.72), alcohol consumption (AOR = 8.3 95% CI: 2.57, 27.00), use of khat (AOR = 11.05 95% CI: 3.53, 34.60), and monthly financial support to the girls from family (AOR= 0.1, 95% CI: (0.03, 0.73). Conclusion: The prevalence of Gender-based violence among female college students in Gonder town was high. Attention should be paid to the reduction of the prevalence and those risk factors of Gender-based violence.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the linkage of identity of new and veteran immigrant students of the Ethiopian community in Israel, by examining their attitudes to children’s literature books written simultaneously in Hebrew and Amharic. The data were collected using focus groups of Ethiopian students attending a teacher training college. The main findings revealed that they referred to two major types of identity: one type is an unreconciled identity, characterized by defiance, which seeks to minimize the visibility of one’s ethnic group within the main culture and tries to adopt the hegemonic identity, whereas the other type of identity contains the original ethnic identity and – in contrast to the first type – tries to reconcile it with the hegemonic culture. Design/methodology/approach This is a qualitative study, which emphasis was on participants’ attitudes, beliefs and perceptions (Kalka, 2003). The goals of the research were to examine identity perceptions of students of the Beta Israel community, as they are exposed to bilingual literary works in Hebrew and Amharic. Findings The main findings revealed that they referred to two major types of identity: one type is an unreconciled identity, characterized by defiance, which seeks to minimize the visibility of one’s ethnic group within the main culture and tries to adopt the hegemonic identity, whereas the other type of identity contains the original ethnic identity and – in contrast to the first type – tries to reconcile it with the hegemonic culture. Research limitations/implications This paper has shed light on an important subject and it would be worthwhile to continue the study using other methodologies. Practical implications This paper contributes to the structuring of a cultural code that serves to organize social meaning and establish individuals’ identity. Social implications This awareness enriches the basis of their own values and allows them to enrich their attitude to their future pupils, for example, to recognize the value of local culture versus that of the immigrants’ place of origin, and to develop an understanding and acceptance of the diversity in the classroom. As they take part in building a multicultural Israeli education framework, dealing with identity patterns is also the key to their own integration in society. Originality/value The originality of the study lies in the usage of two new concepts – unreconciled and reconciled – as referring to the immigrants’ identities.

This article empirically assesses perceptions of Ethiopian secondary school teachers and education administrators on the challenge of quality of education, opportunities and explores viable options to improve the quality. To this effect, the descriptive survey method was employed. The information used in this study was obtained through questionnaires random sampling technique which was employed to select 72 Directors, 50 vice directors, 71 Supervisor 52 unit leader and 638 teachers targeted respondents respectively into two secondary schools. The data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. The result shows that in contrast to remarkable achievements in access, progress to date in raising the quality of education in Ethiopia has been limited. Most of the respondents agree that the achievement in gross enrolments is good but in quality, at a low rate and has learning achievement in education system remains unacceptably low. This has become a source of concern for government officials, educators, parents, teachers, students, and other stakeholders. In addition, the results confirm that curriculum content needs to be relevant to a labour market where meta-cognitive skills are at a premium while providing schools with the flexibility to create an instructional environment suited to local conditions and revising teacher training method in university or colleges.

PurposeThis article focuses on the perception gaps between teachers and students of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) related to garment production and the reasons behind such gaps. Garment production is the priority sector for the Ethiopian government, which plans to make it the driver of export-oriented growth. At the same time, it is among the programs that demonstrate the lowest employment rates.Design/methodology/approachA questionnaire was developed by the authors. It was completed by 162 students and 53 teachers in garment-related programs of seven TVET colleges in Addis Ababa, the capital city of Ethiopia.FindingsThe findings show that while teachers tend to highlight the importance of practical skills, students desire broader coverage of practical and managerial skills and entrepreneurship. The expectations differ not only based on the person's recognition of labor market conditions but also by the conviction of the efficacy of the education and training system itself. Teachers tend to be persistent on conventional approaches of teaching, while the advanced training on new approaches based on the competency-based training (CBT) significantly impacts on their attitude. Meanwhile, students' perceptions are largely based on their job aspirations and motivations for schooling.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings may serve to improve the relevance of the Ethiopian Occupation Standards.Originality/valueThe unique feature of this study is that the authors measure skills from multiple dimensions. While the authors examine participants' perceptions of occupation-specific skills, they also analyze the relationships of these perceptions with attitudinal and cognitive skills.

07–76Banister, Savilla, Rachel A. Vannatta & Cynthia Ross (Bowling Green State U, USA), Testing electronic portfolio systems in teacher education: Finding the right fit. Action in Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators), 27.4 (2005), 81–90.07–77Carroll, David M. (Western Washington U, USA), Developing joint accountability in university–school teacher education partnerships. Action in Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators), 27.4 (2005), 3–11.07–78Clarke, Marie & Sheelagh Drudy (U College Dublin, Ireland), Teaching for diversity, social justice and global awareness. European Journal of Teacher Education (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 29.3 (2006), 371–386.07–79Farrell, Thomas (Brock U, Canada; tfarrell@brocku.ca), ‘The teacher is an octopus’: Uncovering pre-service English language teachers’ prior beliefs through metaphor analysis problems. RELC Journal (Sage) 37.2 (2006), 236–248.07–80Fox, Rebecca K. (George Mason U, USA) & Rosario Diaz-Greenberg, Culture, multiculturalism, and foreign/world language standards in U.S. teacher preparation programs: Toward a discourse of dissonance. European Journal of Teacher Education (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 29.3 (2006), 401–422.07–81Hampel, Regine & Ursula Stickler (The Open U, UK), New skills for new classrooms: Training tutors to teach languages online. Computer Assisted Language Learning (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 18.4 (2005), 311–326.07–82Harrison, Judy, Hal McAffee, Gary Smithey & Charles Weiner (Henderson State U, USA), Assessing candidate disposition for admission into teacher education: Can just anyone teach?Action in Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators), 27.4 (2005), 72–80.07–83Hubbard, Philip (Stanford U, USA), A review of subject characteristics in CALL research. Computer Assisted Language Learning (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 18.5 (2005), 351–368.07–84Humphrey, Neil (U Manchester, UK), Paul Bartolo, Peter Ale, Colin Calleja, Thomas Hofsaess, Vera Janikova, Annemieke Mol Lous, Vida Vilkiene & Gun-Marie Wetso, Understanding and responding to diversity in the primary classroom: An international study. European Journal of Teacher Education (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 29.3 (2006), 305–318.07–85Jones, Phyllis (U South Florida, USA; pjones@banshee.sar.usf.edu),Elizabeth West & Dana Stevens, Nurturing moments of transformation in teachers – Comparative perspectives on the challenges of professional development. British Journal of Special Education (Blackwell) 33.2 (2006), 82–90.07–86Kyriakides, Leonidas, Demetris Demetriou & Charalambos Charalambous (U Cyprus, Cyprus), Generating criteria for evaluating teachers through teacher effectiveness research. Educational Research (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 48.1 (2006), 1–20.07–87O'Donnell, James & Robert Gallegos (New Mexico State U, USA), Project MOVEMOS: A university–public school collaboration. Action in Teacher Education (Association of Teacher Educators), 27.4 (2005), 12–22.07–88Singh, Gurmit (Gurmit.sidhu@gmail.com) & Jack Richards, Teaching and learning in the language teacher education course room: A critical sociocultural perspective. RELC Journal (Sage) 37.2 (2006), 149–175.07–89Varghese, Manka M. (U Washington, Seattle, USA), Bilingual teachers-in-the-making in Urbantown. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development (Multilingual Matters) 27.3 (2006), 211–224.07–90Wolyie Hussein, Jeylan(Haramaya U, Ethiopia), Hopes and challenges in using action research: The outcome of attempting to help in-service teachers learn how to design, evaluate and use reading comprehension questions collaboratively. Educational Action Research (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) 14.3 (2006), 377–393.

Background: Self-medication practice is the use of medications without healthcare professional requests. It can lead to inappropriate medication usage, wastage of resources, increased chance of microbial resistance, and adverse drug reactions. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the prevalence and associated factors of self-medication practice among teachers’ education training college students in the Amhara region, Ethiopia.Methods: A multicentre cross-sectional study was conducted on 344 teachers’ education training college students in the Amhara region, Ethiopia, from January 1 to February 28, 2020. Data on sociodemography, the practice of self-medication, and factors associated with self-medication practice were collected through a self-administered structured questionnaire. Systematic random sampling was used to select participants. Descriptive statistics and univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done to determine various variables and factors associated with self-medication practice.Results: Out of the 344 respondents, 234 (68.0%) practiced self-medication. The most commonly cited indication for self-medication practice was headache (75, 32.05%), followed by abdominal discomfort (53, 22.6%). The respondents who were older than 26 years of age (AOR: 2.47, 95% CI: 1.18–3.94), were in the third year of study (AOR: 3.14, 95% CI: 1.94–5.79), lived in urban residence (AOR: 2.97, 95% CI: 1.06–3.64), had accessibility to a nearby pharmacy (AOR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.43–4.46), and had peer/family pressure (AOR: 2.34, 95% Cl: 1.53–3.56) were significantly associated with self-medication practice.Conclusion: More than two-thirds of the study participants practiced self-medication. Being from an urban area, having access to a private pharmacy, and higher year of study positively affect self-medication practice.

The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between lecturers’ beliefs and the actual methods they use in teaching reading. The study, which was conducted in teacher training colleges in the Amhara Region in Ethiopia, showed quite a number of discrepancies. The findings revealed that although in many cases lecturers were aware of the required methods to teach reading in the classroom, they did not use them. If students are not taught the necessary skills to enable them to read fluently and with comprehension in English as their second language, the implications might be far-reaching. Possible consequences will be lack of confidence and motivation to read and study in English. Furthermore, as teaching of English second language reading is not only of utmost importance as a foundation for learning in higher education, but also the language of teaching and learning in Ethiopia, the most important implication is that it might deprive students from being successful in their studies. The findings of this study will benefit lecturers and higher education institutions. The study not only creates awareness of possible discrepancies that might exist between lecturers’ beliefs and their actual practices but also recommends lecturers to be involved in continuous training on how to confidently use the best reading methods to assist students to be fluent readers and literate students, and be able to study in the language of teaching and learning.

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them [...] life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” (Garcia Marquez 165) Introduction The refugee experience is, at heart, one of rebirth. Just as becoming a new, distinctive being—biological birth—necessarily involves the physical separation of mother and infant, so becoming a refugee entails separation from a "mother country." This mother country may or may not be a recognised nation state; the point is that the refugee transitions from physical connectedness to separation, from insider to outsider, from endemic to alien. Like babies, refugees may have little control over the timing and conditions of their expulsion. Successful resettlement requires not one rebirth but multiple rebirths—resettlement is a lifelong process (Layton)—which in turn require hope, imagination, and energy. In rebirthing themselves over and over again, people who have fled or been forced from their homelands become both mother and child. They do not go through this rebirthing alone. A range of agencies and individuals may be there to assist, including immigration officials, settlement services, schools and teachers, employment agencies and employers, English as a Second Language (ESL) resources and instructors, health-care providers, counsellors, diasporic networks, neighbours, church groups, and other community organisations. The nature, intensity, and duration of these “midwives’” interventions—and when they occur and in what combinations—vary hugely from place to place and from person to person, but there is clear evidence that post-migration experiences have a significant impact on settlement outcomes (Fozdar and Hartley). This paper draws on qualitative research I did in 2012 in a regional town in New South Wales to illuminate some of the ways in which settlement aides ease, or impede, refugees’ rebirth as fully recognised and participating Australians. I begin by considering what it means to be resilient before tracing some of the dimensions of the resettlement process. In doing so, I draw on data from interviews and focus groups with former refugees, service providers, and other residents of the town I shall call Easthaven. First, though, a word about Easthaven. As is the case in many rural and regional parts of Australia, Easthaven’s population is strongly dominated by Anglo Celtic and Saxon ancestries: 2011 Census data show that more than 80 per cent of residents were born in Australia (compared with a national figure of 69.8 per cent) and about 90 per cent speak only English at home (76.8 per cent). Almost twice as many people identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as the national figure of 2.5 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics). For several years Easthaven has been an official “Refugee Welcome Zone”, welcoming hundreds of refugees from diverse countries in Africa and the Middle East as well as from Myanmar. This reflects the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s drive to settle a fifth of Australia’s 13,750 humanitarian entrants a year directly in regional areas. In Easthaven’s schools—which is where I focused my research—almost all of the ESL students are from refugee backgrounds. Defining Resilience Much of the research on human resilience is grounded in psychology, with a capacity to “bounce back” from adverse experiences cited in many definitions of resilience (e.g. American Psychological Association). Bouncing back implies a relatively quick process, and a return to a state or form similar to that which existed before the encounter with adversity. Yet resilience often requires sustained effort and significant changes in identity. As Jerome Rugaruza, a former UNHCR refugee, says of his journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Australia: All the steps begin in the burning village: you run with nothing to eat, no clothes. You just go. Then you get to the refugee camp […] You have a little bread and you thank god you are safe. Then after a few years in the camp, you think about a future for your children. You arrive in Australia and then you learn a new language, you learn to drive. There are so many steps and not everyone can do it. (Milsom) Not everyone can do it, but a large majority do. Research by Graeme Hugo, for example, shows that although humanitarian settlers in Australia face substantial barriers to employment and initially have much higher unemployment rates than other immigrants, for most nationality groups this difference has disappeared by the second generation: “This is consistent with the sacrifice (or investment) of the first generation and the efforts extended to attain higher levels of education and English proficiency, thereby reducing the barriers over time.” (Hugo 35). Ingrid Poulson writes that “resilience is not just about bouncing. Bouncing […] is only a reaction. Resilience is about rising—you rise above it, you rise to the occasion, you rise to the challenge. Rising is an active choice” (47; my emphasis) I see resilience as involving mental and physical grit, coupled with creativity, aspiration and, crucially, agency. Dimensions of Resettlement To return to the story of 41-year-old Jerome Rugaruza, as related in a recent newspaper article: He [Mr Rugaruza] describes the experience of being a newly arrived refugee as being like that of a newborn baby. “You need special care; you have to learn to speak [English], eat the different food, create relationships, connections”. (Milsom) This is a key dimension of resettlement: the adult becomes like an infant again, shifting from someone who knows how things work and how to get by to someone who is likely to be, for a while, dependent on others for even the most basic things—communication, food, shelter, clothing, and social contact. The “special care” that most refugee arrivals need initially (and sometimes for a long time) often results in their being seen as deficient—in knowledge, skills, dispositions, and capacities as well as material goods (Keddie; Uptin, Wright and Harwood). As Fozdar and Hartley note: “The tendency to use a deficit model in refugee resettlement devalues people and reinforces the view of the mainstream population that refugees are a liability” (27). Yet unlike newborns, humanitarian settlers come to their new countries with rich social networks and extensive histories of experience and learning—resources that are in fact vital to their rebirth. Sisay (all names are pseudonyms), a year 11 student of Ethiopian heritage who was born in Kenya, told me with feeling: I had a life back in Africa [her emphasis]. It was good. Well, I would go back there if there’s no problems, which—is a fact. And I came here for a better life—yeah, I have a better life, there’s good health care, free school, and good environment and all that. But what’s that without friends? A fellow student, Celine, who came to Australia five years ago from Burundi via Uganda, told me in a focus group: Some teachers are really good but I think some other teachers could be a little bit more encouraging and understanding of what we’ve gone through, because [they] just look at you like “You’re year 11 now, you should know this” […] It’s really discouraging when [the teachers say] in front of the class, “Oh, you shouldn’t do this subject because you haven’t done this this this this” […] It’s like they’re on purpose to tell you “you don’t have what it takes; just give up and do something else.” As Uptin, Wright and Harwood note, “schools not only have the power to position who is included in schooling (in culture and pedagogy) but also have the power to determine whether there is room and appreciation for diversity” (126). Both Sisay and Celine were disheartened by the fact they felt some of their teachers, and many of their peers, had little interest in or understanding of their lives before they came to Australia. The teachers’ low expectations of refugee-background students (Keddie, Uptin, Wright and Harwood) contrasted with the students’ and their families’ high expectations of themselves (Brown, Miller and Mitchell; Harris and Marlowe). When I asked Sisay about her post-school ambitions, she said: “I have a good idea of my future […] write a documentary. And I’m working on it.” Celine’s response was: “I know I’m gonna do medicine, be a doctor.” A third girl, Lily, who came to Australia from Myanmar three years ago, told me she wanted to be an accountant and had studied accounting at the local TAFE last year. Joseph, a father of three who resettled from South Sudan seven years ago, stressed how important getting a job was to successful settlement: [But] you have to get a certificate first to get a job. Even the job of cleaning—when I came here I was told that somebody has to go to have training in cleaning, to use the different chemicals to clean the ground and all that. But that is just sweeping and cleaning with water—you don’t need the [higher-level] skills. Simple jobs like this, we are not able to get them. In regional Australia, employment opportunities tend to be limited (Fozdar and Hartley); the unemployment rate in Easthaven is twice the national average. Opportunities to study are also more limited than in urban centres, and would-be students are not always eligible for financial assistance to gain or upgrade qualifications. Even when people do have appropriate qualifications, work experience, and language proficiency, the colour of their skin may still mean they miss out on a job. Tilbury and Colic-Peisker have documented the various ways in which employers deflect responsibility for racial discrimination, including the “common” strategy (658) of arguing that while the employer or organisation is not prejudiced, they have to discriminate because of their clients’ needs or expectations. I heard this strategy deployed in an interview with a local businesswoman, Catriona: We were advertising for a new technician. And one of the African refugees came to us and he’d had a lot of IT experience. And this is awful, but we felt we couldn't give him the job, because we send our technicians into people's houses, and we knew that if a black African guy rocked up at someone’s house to try and fix their computer, they would not always be welcomed in all—look, it would not be something that [Easthaven] was ready for yet. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (Refugees and Employment) note that while Australia has strict anti-discrimination legislation, this legislation may be of little use to the people who, because of the way they look and sound (skin colour, dress, accent), are most likely to face prejudice and discrimination. The researchers found that perceived discrimination in the labour market affected humanitarian settlers’ sense of satisfaction with their new lives far more than, for example, racist remarks, which were generally shrugged off; the students I interviewed spoke of racism as “expected,” but “quite rare.” Most of the people Colic-Peisker and Tilbury surveyed reported finding Australians “friendly and accepting” (33). Even if there is no active discrimination on the basis of skin colour in employment, education, or housing, or overt racism in social situations, visible difference can still affect a person’s sense of belonging, as Joseph recounts: I think of myself as Australian, but my colour doesn’t [laughs] […] Unfortunately many, many Australians are expecting that Australia is a country of Europeans … There is no need for somebody to ask “Where do you come from?” and “Do you find Australia here safe?” and “Do you enjoy it?” Those kind of questions doesn’t encourage that we are together. This highlights another dimension of resettlement: the journey from feeling “at home” to feeling “foreign” to, eventually, feeling at home again in the host country (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, Refugees and Employment). In the case of visibly different settlers, however, this last stage may never be completed. Whether the questions asked of Joseph are well intentioned or not, their effect may be the same: they position him as a “forever foreigner” (Park). A further dimension of resettlement—one already touched on—is the degree to which humanitarian settlers actively manage their “rebirth,” and are allowed and encouraged to do so. A key factor will be their mastery of English, and Easthaven’s ESL teachers are thus pivotal in the resettlement process. There is little doubt that many of these teachers have gone to great lengths to help this cohort of students, not only in terms of language acquisition but also social inclusion. However, in some cases what is initially supportive can, with time, begin to undermine refugees’ maturity into independent citizens. Sharon, an ESL teacher at one of the schools, told me how she and her colleagues would give their refugee-background students lifts to social events: But then maybe three years down the track they have a car and their dad can drive, but they still won’t take them […] We arrive to pick them up and they’re not ready, or there’s five fantastic cars in the driveway, and you pick up the student and they say “My dad’s car’s much bigger and better than yours” [laughs]. So there’s an expectation that we’ll do stuff for them, but we’ve created that [my emphasis]. Other support services may have more complex interests in keeping refugee settlers dependent. The more clients an agency has, the more services it provides, and the longer clients stay on its books, the more lucrative the contract for the agency. Thus financial and employment imperatives promote competition rather than collaboration between service providers (Fozdar and Hartley; Sidhu and Taylor) and may encourage assumptions about what sorts of services different individuals and groups want and need. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (“‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”) have developed a typology of resettlement styles—“achievers,” “consumers,” “endurers,” and “victims”—but stress that a person’s style, while influenced by personality and pre-migration factors, is also shaped by the institutions and individuals they come into contact with: “The structure of settlement and welfare services may produce a victim mentality, leaving members of refugee communities inert and unable to see themselves as agents of change” (76). The prevailing narrative of “the traumatised refugee” is a key aspect of this dynamic (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”; Fozdar and Hartley; Keddie). Service providers may make assumptions about what humanitarian settlers have gone through before arriving in Australia, how they have been affected by their experiences, and what must be done to “fix” them. Norah, a long-time caseworker, told me: I think you get some [providers] who go, “How could you have gone through something like that and not suffered? There must be—you must have to talk about this stuff” […] Where some [refugees] just come with the [attitude] “We’re all born into a situation; that was my situation, but I’m here now and now my focus is this.” She cited failure to consider cultural sensitivities around mental illness and to recognise that stress and anxiety during early resettlement are normal (Tilbury) as other problems in the sector: [Newly arrived refugees] go through the “happy to be here” [phase] and now “hang on, I’ve thumped to the bottom and I’m missing my own foods and smells and cultures and experiences”. I think sometimes we’re just too quick to try and slot people into a box. One factor that appears to be vital in fostering and sustaining resilience is social connection. Norah said her clients were “very good on the mobile phone” and had links “everywhere,” including to family and friends in their countries of birth, transition countries, and other parts of Australia. A 2011 report for DIAC, Settlement Outcomes of New Arrivals, found that humanitarian entrants to Australia were significantly more likely to be members of cultural and/or religious groups than other categories of immigrants (Australian Survey Research). I found many examples of efforts to build both bonding and bridging capital (Putnam) in Easthaven, and I offer two examples below. Several people told me about a dinner-dance that had been held a few weeks before one of my visits. The event was organised by an African women’s group, which had been formed—with funding assistance—several years before. The dinner-dance was advertised in the local newspaper and attracted strong interest from a broad cross-section of Easthaveners. To Debbie, a counsellor, the response signified a “real turnaround” in community relations and was a big boon to the women’s sense of belonging. Erica, a teacher, told me about a cultural exchange day she had organised between her bush school—where almost all of the children are Anglo Australian—and ESL students from one of the town schools: At the start of the day, my kids were looking at [the refugee-background students] and they were scared, they were saying to me, "I feel scared." And we shoved them all into this tiny little room […] and they had no choice but to sit practically on top of each other. And by the end of the day, they were hugging each other and braiding their hair and jumping and playing together. Like Uptin, Wright and Harwood, I found that the refugee-background students placed great importance on the social aspects of school. Sisay, the girl I introduced earlier in this paper, said: “It’s just all about friendship and someone to be there for you […] We try to be friends with them [the non-refugee students] sometimes but sometimes it just seems they don’t want it.” Conclusion A 2012 report on refugee settlement services in NSW concludes that the state “is not meeting its responsibility to humanitarian entrants as well as it could” (Audit Office of New South Wales 2); moreover, humanitarian settlers in NSW are doing less well on indicators such as housing and health than humanitarian settlers in other states (3). Evaluating the effectiveness of formal refugee-centred programs was not part of my research and is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, I have sought to reveal some of the ways in which the attitudes, assumptions, and everyday practices of service providers and members of the broader community impact on refugees' settlement experience. 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