Cultural Scripts Resist Reforms in Teacher Education

Abstract

As a part of a huge intervention in teacher education programs in Pakistan the author had a firsthand experience of how the "habits of mind" hinder in changing the practices and cultures of teachers and institutions respectively. It has been a part of traditional teaching in Pakistan that only one text book is followed by teachers and students as the only source of knowledge. This not only provides limited knowledge but also inculcates the habit of rote memorization and reproduction of text in exams. No critical thinking and critical pedagogy is adopted. It was tried in the Pre-STEP initiative by USAID and HEC to change this culture at the teacher education institutions. New course guides were developed to initiate research based teaching and learning. The researcher talked to the teacher educators at six institutions twice with a gap of six months to see how they adopted the new culture and what stopped them to change their practices. This paper highlights and identifies what aspects of sociology of teaching stop teacher educators in Pakistan from adopting innovative modes of teaching.

Keywords: Sociology of teaching, Cultural Script, Teacher Education, Practices, Reform