Impact of initial teacher education for prospective lower secondary school teachers in Rwanda

Rwanda has prioritized quality education by taking measures to increase the number of qualified lower secondary teachers. However, having a qualification does not necessarily guarantee higher quality teaching, as what matters is the process of how qualification is acquired. This paper explores quality of initial teacher education (ITE) for lower secondary teachers in Rwanda, focusing on intended, implemented and attained curriculum. The main finding is that the ITE curriculum is not constructed based on the theory of how student teachers learn, characterised by disregard of student teachers' prior-knowledge on teaching, fragmentation of different knowledge domains and lack of reflective practice.