THE RELEVANCE AND ORIENTATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE: ALIGNING WITH
EDUCATION 5.0

THE RELEVANCE AND ORIENTATION OF TEACHER EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE: ALIGNING WITH
EDUCATION 5.0

CASSIAN MAKOTA

A. T. MUNZARA

TICHAONA MAPOLISA

This paper seeks to understand and explain the relevance and orientation of teacher education (TE) in
Zimbabwe and is based on the multiple case study carried out by the author. Preliminary study
identified a gap in form of a misalignment of teacher education with Higher and Tertiary Education
5.0 policy in so far as entrepreneurship, innovation and industrialisation were lacking in TE curriculum
and practice. The new government policy of Education 5.0 was perceived to have revealed a
misalignment between the practiced Education 3.0 and the intended Heritage Based Education 5.0
Curriculum, because of the absence of entrepreneurship and innovation for industrialisation and
sustainable development in the former.
The study sought to add to literature on entrepreneurship and innovation in teacher education and
also promote the development of entrepreneurial and innovative teacher graduates for
industrialisation through heritage-based education 5.0 pre and in-service teacher education system in
the context of sustainable development. This study was guided by the constructivist philosophy and
the interpretivist paradigm. The study adopted the qualitative research approach and the embedded
multiple case study method because of the flexibility and diversity in data generation that they allow.
The study utilised the three case sites (teachers colleges) within the broader teacher education case
in Zimbabwe and that explains the embeddedness. The purposive, non-random probability sampling
procedure, featuring judgemental and convenience sampling was employed in the study. Data
generation process involved key and other informant interviews, focus group discussion, observations
and qualitative document analysis. Data was presented and analysed using the thematic and N-vivo
approaches respectively.
The study found that there was misalignment between the practiced Education 3.0 teacher education
curriculum and the intended Heritage based, HTE 5.0 informed curriculum and this was causing policy-
practice dissonance that could be inhibiting the realisation of SDGs, and thus called for curriculum
alignment and harmonisation through transformation. This study, therefore, suggested and
recommended the Programmatic Framework for Entrepreneurial Teacher Education for the
Zimbabwean context. The study contributes to policy alignment discourse by making multiple
theoretical insights. The study, therefore, complements the extant perspectives on curriculum policy
alignment and teacher education for industrialisation and sustainable economic growth

Global Scientific Journal

2023