Research On The Reform Of Teacher Education Institutions In Post-Apartheid South Africa

Through using literature research method,history research method,comparative research method,and case research method, this paper focus on the history,background,process,and effects of the reform of teacher education institutions in South Africa since1994.Firstly,teacher education of South Africa began in the mid-17th century,we could divided the history (before1994) into three phases:colonial period(1650s～early20th century),in this period,normal/teacher colleges were responsible for new teachers’ provision;Union of South Africa period(early20th century～1960s),in this period,some universities began joining in teacher education;Republic of South Africa (1960s～1994),in this period,universities and colleges shared the new teachers’ provision in South Africa,but the major function of education colleges focus on primary education,universities focus on secondary education.Secondly, Political transformation, economic pressure, international experience were external causes for South Africa, and problems like curriculum re form,efficiency of teacher education,supply-demand of new teacher were internal causes of the reform.Thirdly, the process of reform is the most important chapter for this paper. The reform scheme’s introduction experienced4years:All colleges incorporated universities in response to external and internal imperatives; some colleges want to autonomous or took cognisance of its status,some universities don’t want to be merged or incorporated were the main factors of reform resistance;we could divided the reform into two steps:Rational reconstruction between colleges(1998～2001),and colleges incorporated universities,and universities merged.South Africa introduced4forms:institutional cessation,protected enclosure,subsumed integration,and equal partnership;government-dominated,step-by-step advance, and merged between institutions nearly were the characteristics of reform.Fourthly,this reform constructed a fair system of teacher education,enhanced the teachers’ education level,improved the teachers’ education benefit.However, some problems made South africa got the thinking,like shortage of teachers and new teachers’ practice,internal integration in new institutions and so on.Last but not least, on the basis of previous discussion, the research not only holds on the essence of teacher education reform in South Africa but also gives some good advices for teacher education in China like changing value orientation of emphasizing the connection between theories and practices, strengthening social forces to carry out the integration of teacher education and so on.