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Toward Addressing Teacher Overproduction in Tanzania’s Higher Education Through Education Referencing
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Abstract
Teacher supply is a contested phenomenon in teacher education globally, pointing to its quantitative and qualitative aspects. In response, this article examines how Tanzania’s higher education can benefit from high-performing education systems (HPES) to avert teacher overproduction. It employs the Human Capital Theory (HCT) and Phillips and Ochs’ Framework of education policy transfer and borrowing to achieve that goal. The thematic analysis supports adapting teacher education practices from HPES to produce a sufficient number of quality teachers in the country. The analysis identifies lessons that can be used to control teacher oversupply, including establishing high standards for entry qualifications in teacher education programmes, reducing the number of teacher preparation institutions, lengthening the duration of pre-service training and requirements for teaching positions, establishing teacher education policy, and institutionalising national standards for higher teacher education programmes. The article considers the state of teacher overproduction as an asset to restore the degrading status of the teaching profession in Tanzania. It is concluded that in attempting to regulate teacher overproduction in the country, the existing contextual structures must be considered to avoid failure while enhancing sustainability.
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