Teacher certification policy and teacher education institutions in Indonesia

Teacher Certification Policy and Teacher Education Institutions

in Indonesia: A Pilot Study

By: Iwan Syahril!Michigan State University

A special thanks to MSU’s Education Policy Program & Dept. of Teacher Education for supporting this presentation

Presented at the Comparative International Education Society Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada, 13 March 2014

Outline• Teacher Certification

• Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy

• The Role of Teacher Education Institutions

• Conceptual Framework

• Research Questions

• Findings, Discussion

• Lessons Learned, Limitations

Teacher Certification

• Certification as an indicator of quality (Heine, 2006; Darling-Hammond, Wise, and Klein, 1999).

• Teacher licensing as a tool for educational change (Darling-Hammond, Wise, and Klein, 1999).

The Indonesia’s Teacher Certification Policy

17,501 islands, 240 million people, 350 ethnic groups, 750 languages, 34 provinces

ALL K-12 teachers

are certified

1 million with!

Bachelor’s degree

1.7 million with out

Bachelor’s degree

Certification Assessment

2.7 million!teachers

2007 201537.5%

62.5%

100%

8 years

Academic Upgrading to Bachelor’s

degree

basic salary !doubled/tripled

Teachers, Government

agencies, Teacher

Education, Money,

Facilities, etc.

Policy Implementation Intended Outcome

~ To certify all

Indonesian K-12

teachers by 2015

~ To improve teacher’s

salary

All Indonesian

K-12 teachers

are certified in 2015 and

have improved

salary

Inputs, Components

Implementation Objectives

Policy!Output

Teacher certification

improves teacher

quality, and improved teacher quality

improves student learning

Student learning

improves, therefore,

educational quality

improves

LinkingConstruct

Policy!Outcome

Figure 2. The certification policy logic model, adapted from McDavid & Hawthorn (2006)

To certify all

Indonesian K-12

teachers by 2015



degree

1.7 million without

Bachelor’s degree

1 million with Bachelor’s

degree

Teacher !Education Institutions

1 million with Bachelor’s degree

Professional!Certificate

Portfolio Assessment


degree

90-hour professional

training

If fails…

If pas

ses…

Teacher Educationas Assessors

Teacher Educationas, Hosts, Facilitators

& Assessors

2007-2011

Professional!Certificate

Pre-training competency test


degree

90-hour professional training

Teacher Educationas, Hosts, Facilitators & Assessors

Post-training competency test

2012 - present

1 million

teachers

1.7 million without Bachelor’s degree

1.7 million without Bachelor’s degree

Recognition of Prior Learning

Upgraded programs

Upgraded to Bachelor’s

degree

Distance learning


1.7 million without

Bachelor’s degree

TE as program developers, facilitators, hosts, & assessors1.7

million teachers

Regular Bachelor’s degree programs

A new post-bachelor’s teacher professional preparation program

Teacher !Education Institutions



degree

Running teacher

education programs

Increased enthusiasm, Increased number of applicants,Increased quality of applicants

Application Process (Exams, Documents),A new curriculum,

students from diverse majors

Teacher Education’s Responsibilities1. Developing new programs

~ Upgrading all bachelor’s degree curricula for primary and secondary teachers~ Developing a post-bachelor’s teacher preparation program ~ Developing long distance teacher education programs, esp. for in-service teachers.

2. Facilitating teaching, learning, and research~ All existing bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs ~ Facilitating 90-hour certification professional training ~ Facilitating the new post-bachelor’s teacher ed program ~ Facilitating online long distance teacher ed programs

3. Assessors ~ Portfolio assessment for certification~ Recognition of prior learning

The Context!of LPTK• More than 400 LPTKs.

Currently, 12 public teacher education institutions, and 120 private ones; 271 regular universities with a faculty for training teachers - 20 are public, 251 are private.

• A quality gap between state-owned LPTKs and private LPTKs.

• The number of qualified lecturers; especially for the elementary education.

Social Capital• Social capital exists in relations, which

later facilitate actions, such as gaining direct access to economic resources, increasing cultural capital; being affiliated with individuals that confer valued credentials (Portes, 1998).!!

• Forms of social capital (Coleman, 1988)1. Trusts and expectations2. Information channel 3. Social norms (rewards and sanctions)!!

• Closure of social networks

Research Questions1. How do teacher education institutions (LPTKs)

utilize and maximize their social capital in performing their role as certifying institutions? (the policy objective)!

2. How do teacher education institutions (LPTKs) utilize and maximize their social capital to help achieve the intended policy outcomes? (the policy outcome)

Method• Case study

~ how and why social phenomenon works~ investigates a contemporary phenomenon ~ boundaries between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident (Yin, 2014).

• Five interviews Government officers in the Indonesia’s Ministry of Education, Professors in LPTKs.

• Document analysisRelevant documents and/or reports published by credible institutions

Findings (1):Standardized Implementation

• 1.5 million teachers out of 2.7 million have been certified.

• Rules, procedures, and materials are developed by the central government.

• Funding is provided by the central government, thus giving the power to the central government to manage policy implementation

Findings (2): Inadequate Capacity

• A majority of LPTKs are of poor quality, especially the private ones.

• Lack of qualified human resources, especially the elementary education programs.

Findings (3):Quality is not the priority

• The assigned LPTKs have to form partnership (Parent LPTK - Partner LPTK) with other LPTKs, which have lower quality.

• Quality control in assessment and training is not clear. Thus, the credibility of assessment results.

• Lack of financial incentives, low motivation, low performance.

• Serious threats to LPTKs from teachers.

Discussion

How do certifying universities utilize and maximize their social capital in performing

their role as certifying institutions? (the policy objective)

• Reciprocity The possession of social capital facilitates the acquisition of resources, and the existence of resources also facilitates social capitalThe parent LPTKs dominate the most rewarding roles. At the same time the existence of financial rewards led to the formation of social capital (dualities of/changing roles).

• Effective norms and sanctions, closure of networks.Most parent LPTKs are public LPTKs, which are part of the government. They seemed to follow orders, and choose not to complain if things do not work well. “Just make do.” This compromises the quality.

How do certifying universities utilize and maximize their social capital to help achieve

the intended policy outcomes? (the policy outcome)

• Studies show that teachers with certification are not better than those without certification.

• The work culture (e.g., being civil servants) led to minimum disruptions when quality is not met.

• Lack of human resources (e.g., assessors) led to poor assessment.

Lessons Learned - What is it a case of?

• Teacher certification and teacher quality What does teacher quality mean? Teachers who have certificate? Or teachers who have certificate plus plus? Is certification necessary?

• Learning to teach / Teacher learning How do teachers learn and change? What kind of learning should be provided to enable them to practice the “Ambitious teaching practices?”

Lessons Learned - What is it a case of?

• Education reform Reform takes time, especially in a large scale. Time dimension. The influence of culture.

• The political economy in education Original design is better. Teacher welfare issue is more significant than the issue of quality.

Limitations

• Conceptual framework: ~ Social Network Analysis (Coburn & Russell, 2008)~ Relational Trust (Byrk & Schneider, 2002)

• Long distance data collection (telephone, Skype, Yahoo Messanger)

• More data needed, especially about teacher education institutions.

Terima kasih.

Thank you.