EdData II: Data for Education Research and Programming (derp) in Africa

Alternatives for making best use of teachers’
language and subject-matter skills 
 
Because it is unrealistic to expect all teachers to be highly proficient 
in multiple languages, to be able to teach those language as 
subjects, and to be highly knowledgeable in curricular content and 
effective pedagogy, school systems where teachers are currently 
expected to fulfill all of these duties should consider alternatives. For 
example, in many contexts in Europe and North America, second or 
foreign language instruction is conducted by specialists in that 
language. Other alternatives to traditional one-teacher/one-
classroom models to explore include partner teaching or allowing the 
most L2-proficient teacher in the school to specialize in language 
instruction. 

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Teacher recruitment, placement, and support.
The feasibility of a language plan for 
education is highly dependent on how teachers are assigned to and supported in their 
schools. Therefore, recruitment and placement policies and processes must consider 
teachers’ proficiency in certain languages in ways that promote linguistic and cultural 
match-ups between teachers and schools/communities. As with the other factors 
described above, a system’s current situation does not mean that a plan for instruction in 
familiar languages is not feasible, but that careful planning is needed to meet the 
requirements of the language plan.
Planning that takes into consideration the above requirements for effective education will help to 
ensure that a plan for language use in education will be successful. 
Box 4
 contains questions for 
investigating these requirements in order to guide planning.
Box 4. Questions to explore language and educational context