Abstract
An account of fieldwork in standard 1 classes in Southern Malawi, looking at the experiences of pupils and teachers five years after the implementation of free primary education. Primary enrolment almost doubled in 1994, but now seems to be falling back. There is concern that this is partly a response to the quality of education on offer.
Several teachers were identified as effective practitioners, and their teaching was studied in depth. Data were collected on the physical and socio-cultural school context, for example; teaching and learning resources, class size, attendance, dropout, repetition and pupil achievement.
Teachers were found to have various strategies for responding to the diversity found within a large class, (partly resulting from a large age range and irregular attendance). Differentiation may have been assumed not to exist in classes in developing countries because it is expressed in a different form from that expected by Western observers. The teachers used aspects of oral culture to cope with a difficult physical context.
This research suggests that the practices of effective teachers for working with current pupil diversity, could be a starting point for programmes to encourage the inclusive education of pupils with a wider range of individual needs.
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