IMPLEMENTATION OF CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH IN ZIMBABWEAN TEACHER EDUCATION COLLEGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSFORMATIVE TEACHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Teaching is an intricate profession that has more to it than mere technical skills. The profession requires preservice teachers to be capacitated with research skills and competencies to ensure that they systematically, intentionally, and critically consider diverse learner factors in their tour of duty. In that view, it was the purpose of this study to interrogate the implementation of classroom action research (CAR) in identified Zimbabwean teacher education colleges as the basis for future policy directions and related day-to-day CAR practice. The study utilised the mixed methods research approach, guided by the adopted pragmatism paradigm. It used the between methods concurrent triangulation design. The study was guided by the Experiential Learning Theory and the Curriculum Implementation Framework. Both theories reckon the significance of reflective teaching, which is the kernel of CAR.A purposive sample of sixty-four teacher educators and seventy-six preservice teachers was utilised. Several research instruments were utilised to solicit the requisite CAR implementation data, namely: questionnaires, interview schedules, focus group discussions and documents. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was utilised to summarise solicited quantitative data. Qualitative data were analysed using content analysis. It was established that teachers’ colleges were producing student teachers with unsound grasp of the CAR process. Consequently, more curricular, and organisational reconstruction was required to improve the status quo. Some teacher educators too were incapacitated to effectively deliver CAR. Overall, the study proffered a gamut of tentative intervention measures.