AJOTE: INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS AND TEACHER PREPARATION 

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AJOTE: Vol. 3 No. 2 (Summer 2013) 

AJOTE 

Editor’s Note 
 

 

Dear AJOTE Readers and Contributors: 

 

Welcome to the African Journal of Teacher Education (AJOTE) Summer 2013 issue.  This issue 

continues to reflect the diverse expertise of Africa’s education experts. 

 

AJOTE:  International Connections and Teacher Preparation, Summer 2013 issue includes educational 

studies across a range of nations. The first two articles demonstrate curriculum connection between 

African national curriculums and United States curriculum.  Kelly and Cordileone open this issue with 

reflections on the experiences of a Ugandan and United States teacher partnership program set in 

Uganda. In the next article Stabler and Owusu review Ghana’s and a U.S. social studies curriculum to 

discuss the need to revise curriculum on the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to better represent African and 

Diaspora roles and results in this crucial historical period. Majiuni uses a case study in Nigeria to discuss 

the need to include indigenous knowledge, i.e. oral histories and perspectives, in order to both develop 

accurate feminist based research in African education. She points out in using oral histories as a way to 

improve gender representation in social studies that this method also helps educators learn through 

indigenous education.  The next two articles also focus on teachers’ roles in the curriculum, as Mabagala 

focuses on the sometimes ethical and moral dilemmas faced by Physical Education teachers in Tanzania 

due to their necessarily physically close and often emotionally close relationship with students as they 

coach and mentor them. On another important topic, Konyana and Konyana discuss the role of 

computers or lack thereof in rural Zimbabwe’s curriculum and the need to provide adequate 

infrastructure to support teacher training and student development in computer education. The final three 

articles wrestle with issues in teacher education and the need to maintain quality training.  Anane 

discusses issues of high stakes testing in Ghana’s teacher education program and the issue of whether 

such testing works for or against effective teacher preparation.  Newman’s article moves this discussion 

one step further, as he discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the recent change in Ghana to 

transition Teacher Training Institutions to part of the Tertiary system as Colleges of Education.  The 

many changes in curriculum and testing that this represents are discussed in his article.  The last article 

in this issue by Kaphesi also highlights the difficulty in providing valid teacher training through the 

analysis of student teacher assessments by comparing graded assessments with supervision comments. 

 

The upcoming AJOTE Fall 2013 is already underway thanks to the many valuable contributions of our 

readers and the professional reviews from our Editorial Board. Please remember to share this issue and 

others with your colleagues and encourage them to submit professional papers for the Winter 2014 issue.  

The Summer 2014 issue is scheduled as a Special Issue on Indigenous Education. Articles in this issue 

will address Indigenous Education structures and practices and its continued role within African 

societies including the ways it contributes to the national formal and informal education curricula.  

Please watch for this Special Issue call for papers.  Your support of AJOTE as helped us to expand our 

coverage in African education and reach more readers in our effort to increase awareness of African 

education. We encourage and welcome submissions on African education in all fields and from all 

regions of the continent. 

http://gir.uoguelph.ca/index.php/ajote/issue/current


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AJOTE: Vol. 3 No. 2 (Summer 2013) 

 
 

 

As always a sincere thank you to AJOTE’s outstanding Editorial Board, who consistently provide 

thorough peer review of paper submissions. If you are interested in becoming an Editorial Board 

member, please e-mail your request, along with your CV, to AJOTE at AJOTE2011@gmail.com.    

 

Sincerely, 

 

Dr. Jamaine Abidogun 

Editor-in-Chief 

Missouri State University 

Springfield, MO 

mailto:AJOTE2011@gmail.com