Myanmar’s Initial Teacher Education Reform: Efforts Made by Universities of Education

Abstract

All education systems are currently facing a challenge: how to transform themselves into institutions that equip learners with the necessary competences to cope in the 21^st century. The prerequisite of a successful transformation is a thorough reform of teacher education. The challenge looms especially large for developing countries. This paper aims to explore how teacher education reforms at Myanmar’s two prestigious Universities of Education (UoEs) starting in 2012 played out. To be able to give an overview of the reform efforts, besides consulting the professional literature, curriculum documents were analysed, and three semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data shows that the reforms implemented by the two institutions, although positive overall, were not sufficient, especially in terms of assessment, teaching practices, university and school partnerships, and teacher educators’ capacity building. Unfortunately, the 2021 military coup and the ensuing crisis makes it highly unlikely that the much-needed further reforms will be implemented any time soon.