An analytical understanding of how external sources inform and impact upon Somaliland’s national education and teacher education policy making processes

Abstract

This thesis investigates how external sources inform and impact Somaliland’s national teacher education policy making processes. In this research, external factor is mainly constituted by INGOs that are helping Somaliland’s education and teacher education re-construction which are considered to be part of wider global-national interactions. The conceptual frameworks of policy making processes, policy transfer, lesson drawing and policy learning are used to develop the theoretical perspectives that inform the research question. Constructivist’s qualitative research approach which utilises critical discourse analysis as the principle methodology has been used to gain an understanding of the discursive construction of meaning about Somaliland’s education reforms and analyse the discourses of teacher education and teacher professionalism that are evident in three contemporary education reform policy documents and interview data. This thesis considered policy making processes as a contested, dynamic and multidimensional phenomena and has acknowledged the centrality of power and resources in policy making processes. The analysis of the research data constructed Somaliland’s education reforms as a discourse of human capital. This had implications for the strategies for managing change, quality and improvement perception, and reconceptualisations of teacher education and teacher professionalism. The thesis concludes with concerns about the contextual visibility to implement the new discourses of education and teacher education and calls for increased policy learning, capacity building, resource increase and modernisation of institutions as well as change of the culture of work.