Editorial, Reform Forum Number 10

Welcome to this issue, Number 10, of the Reform Forum. This edition contains a vicissitude of articles ranging from in-depth personal reflections on individual teaching practices to project reviews. Y. A. Alausa begins with Teachers' feedback through the learners: A case of my Biology class. In his paper, Alausa takes a closer look at the perception his learners have on Biology and specifically his teaching techniques within the class. Through a questionnaire he designed, seven areas were taken under consideration from the learners' perspective: teacher's perceived support, classroom control and discipline, lesson participation, lesson satisfaction, classroom assessment, attitudes, and syllabus reactions. By doing so, his teaching approach was highly scrutinised to see what did and did not work, which will lead to the teacher adapting his approach to better meet the learners' needs.

Pandapala Kafupi leads us into a second self development study on why some male learners in Grade 10 at Onamulunga Combined School are reluctant to participate in group work during Geography lessons. In her paper, a critical inquiry was made as to why certain learners did not perform well in her class despite doing well in other classes. By completing the study, Kafupi concluded that the reason for the poor performance was not from her learners' misunderstandings, but instead, made critical realisations that the teaching approaches were counter-productive to the learning.

In Deconstructing educational dependency: Insights from a Namibian college of teacher education, John Nyambe and Joy Griffiths begin their paper with a review of Namibia's apartheid past as well as "the neo-colonial dependency in the African context". They suggest that a dependency on industrialised nations for educational support has been created in Namibia and propose alternatives to relieving this dependency.

Jesper Olsson Kritensen, in Reform and/or change? The Namibian broad curriculum revisited, reviews the design of curriculum in general and the Namibian Broad Curriculum, specifically. Kritensen suggests that Namibia's curriculum was "an evolution...rather than a revolution" and supports his case with detailed philosophies of different educationalists.

Discussing The BETD - an innovative teacher education programme under attack: the continuation of the struggle, Lars Dalstrom dispels myths that have casted upon the Basic Education Teachers' Diploma. Dalstrom explains teacher education in Namibia, programme content and assessment to counteract the criticisms made against BETD. The paper supports BETD as a necessary programme to develop a "different kind of educational practice" within Namibia.

Teacher professionalism in Namibia: What went wrong? A speech delivered by Mr A. Ilukena at the Graduation Ceremony at Caprivi College of Education, 23 April 1999 is explored by Ilukena as motivation for the graduated teachers to perform well within the profession. In his speech, Ilukena explains the qualities of a good teacher and encourages the new teachers to follow this practice. And, in his concluding remarks, Ilukena stresses the importance of working together "for the sake of our children".

In the final article Selma N. Imene reviews the Enviroteach project and environmental education in Namibia. Imene proposes the purpose of environmental education in Namibia is because of the 'semi-arid and fragile' environment on which the inhabitants are dependent. The implementation of the Enviroteach project is discussed including the current status of the project and future developments. In her conclusion, Imene emphasises the importance of environmental education within Namibia and how Enviroteach has assisted in that realm.

In the seven articles in this Reform Forum edition, many topics of discussion have been proposed with recommendations for individual, teacher-education practice as well as on a national basis. We hope that you will find the articles as interesting as we did, and that you will be able to use them in your education practices.

The Editorial Committee