The Epistemological Structures of Teacher Training Programmes in Sudan (1900 – 2023)

Introduction

Traditional western applied linguistics conceptualised teachers and the process of teacher-training as mere applications of theoretical linguistic principles already constructed in the Global North (Borelli, Silvestre & Pessoa, 2020; Canagarajah, 2012; Kumaravadivelu, 2003, 2006; Pennycook & Makoni, 2020). We engage with this critical observation in both colonial and postcolonial contexts of Sudan. Teacher training programmes throughout Sudanese history have played a significant role in training teachers at the different levels of education in the country. Each training programme seemingly works along certain epistemological lines to achieve professionalism as an effect of completing the programme. We engage with the following three related questions: First, what is the nature of the epistemological structures embedded in teacher-training progrmames in Sudan? Second, how do they dialectically shape the design of Sudanese English language teacher-training programmes in attaining professionalism? Third, how is the teacher trainee’s identity imagined and enacted in the training materials and practice? To answer these questions, we focus on five teacher-training programmes (henceforth TTPs): two of these operated within the colonial era (1899–1956), while the remaining three were established in the post-colonial era (1956–present). The TTPs established in the colonial period are the training department at Gordon Memorial College (henceforth GMC) and Bākht-er-Ruda Teacher Training Institute (henceforth BRTTI). The programmes established in the post-colonial period are the Higher Teacher Training Institute (henceforth HTTI), In-Service Educational Training Institute (henceforth ISETI) and SNCL/SELTI.

Drawing on an interpretive-analytic framework, we examine five teacher training programmes covering both the colonial and the post-colonial eras. The paper demonstrates that most programmes that we analysed conform to ‘technicist’, applied, and competency-based epistemologies of teacher education/training. Thus, the teacher particularly in Sudan is viewed as a technicist who should apply theories already constructed in the Global North, rather than as a theorist or a partner in the process of knowledge production. As a consequence, these programmes mostly failed to incorporate reflective research components in their provision. We maintain that these conceptions of the teacher education/training provision deprive Sudanese trainee teachers of their constructive role of knowledge development.

Despite the various studies on TESOL teacher education conducted at different contexts (Banegas, 2017; Maggioli, 2014; Pandian, 2002; Walsh & Mann, 2019; Zohdijalal & Mohammadi, 2021); very little is known about the epistemological structures and the nature of knowledge in TTPs in Sudan (for historical review of teacher training and education at the Sudanese context see Sandell, 1982; Siddiek, 2011; for comparative accounts see Dadi, 2015; for a recent comprehensive survey of English language teacher education at the global context see Walsh & Mann, 2019). Though research interested on teacher knowledge has increased in the last decade in Sudan (Bashir, 2011; Elshiekh, 2016; Fean, 2012; Wolfenden & Buckler 2013, 2015); none of these studies (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has provided a detailed account of the epistemological nature of TTPs in Sudan. The epistemological structures of TTPs in Sudan are still a neglected research pool. There is a real need to fill in this research gap. Therefore, this paper tries to tap into this under-researched area by studying the epistemologies informed teacher education and teachers' knowledge in TTPs in Sudan. There is still a lack of understanding of different traditions of teacher education and teacher training in Sudan.