Getahun Yacob Abraham | University of Borås (original) (raw)

Papers by Getahun Yacob Abraham

Journal of Praxis in Higher Education

This paper is based on an interview with one of the principal leaders of an international partner... more This paper is based on an interview with one of the principal leaders of an international partnership program between Ethiopia and Sweden, 2018-2022. The purpose of this interview is to deepen the understanding of these kinds of partnership, and to learn more about the possibilities and pitfalls of working in a joint program between national and cultural contexts. The interview was conducted with professor Gun-Britt Wärvik, the Swedish coordinator of the doctoral program between Addis Abeba University (AAU) and University of Gothenburg (GU). The interview results suggest that doctoral supervisory challenges were present as students often used concepts produced in cultural contexts that were foreign to their assigned supervisors. Additionally, the administrative burden was particularly challenging for the Ethiopian counterpart that coordinated the program. Overall, the program created many positive work opportunities for students, provided possibilities for staff of both universities...

Journal of Education and Culture Studies

This study investigates roles teachers could play in developing their students’ critical thinking... more This study investigates roles teachers could play in developing their students’ critical thinking and transforming society. The study is based on a literature review. Critical pedagogy is used as a theoretical point of departure. The results show three important roles of teachers, the pedagogical, intellectual and activist roles. Teachers acting as pedagogues can help their students understand the subjects they are focusing on and develop a critical understanding of their own and their society’s situation. Teachers as intellectuals produce knowledge through research on their practice and other fields of knowledge, learn on how to disseminate such knowledge and understanding its consequences. As citizens, teachers use their own and their students’ experiences and knowledge of needs of their community/society to play an activist role in transforming society. Thus, the ideal teacher plays a multidimensional role as a pedagogue, an intellectual and an activist.

This study investigates roles teachers could play in developing their students' critical thinking... more This study investigates roles teachers could play in developing their students' critical thinking and transforming society. The study is based on a literature review. Critical pedagogy is used as a theoretical point of departure. The results show three important roles of teachers, the pedagogical, intellectual and activist roles. Teachers acting as pedagogues can help their students understand the subjects they are focusing on and develop a critical understanding of their own and their society's situation. Teachers as intellectuals produce knowledge through research on their practice and other fields of knowledge, learn on how to disseminate such knowledge and understanding its consequences. As citizens, teachers use their own and their students' experiences and knowledge of needs of their community/society to play an activist role in transforming society. Thus, the ideal teacher plays a multidimensional role as a pedagogue, an intellectual and an activist.

Denna artikel beskriver hur fakultetsopponenter motiverar avhandlingars kvalitet i populärvetens... more Denna artikel beskriver hur fakultetsopponenter motiverar avhandlingars kvalitet i populärvetenskapliga sammanfattningar som publicerats i tidskriften Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige under perioden 2000-2015. I artikeln fokuseras granskningskriterier som gäller relevans, förståelse av forskningsfältet, presentation av texten och dess kommunicerbarhet, originalitet och bidrag samt självständighet, vilka alla kompletterar de grundläggande granskningskriterierna. I artikel fokuseras hur dessa granskningskriterier kommer till uttryck och används när fakultetsopponenter beskriver en avhandling som de har granskat. Syftet är att tydliggöra hur dessa granskningskriterier framställs när fakultetsopponenter lyfter fram vad som är betydelsefullt i avhandlingarna. Studien omfattar 59 sammanfattande texter från 60 olika disputationstillfällen. Avsikten är att bidra till en djupare förståelse av dessa granskningskriterier och hur de kommer till uttryck, till nytta för doktora...

Skandinavisk tidsskrift for yrker og profesjoner i utvikling

This study investigates prominent themes about newly arrived immigrant students’ situation in lif... more This study investigates prominent themes about newly arrived immigrant students’ situation in life and at school as reflected in interviews with four teachers in a vocational upper secondary school located in a Swedish city suburb dominated by residents with immigrant background. Foucault’s concept of power and counter-power as well as Riessman’s narrative analysis are used to discuss and analyse the interviewed teachers’ descriptions. The results highlight the power and counter-power mechanisms involved in the discrepancy between well-behaved and ambitious immigrant students and the media representations of the students' housing area as criminal. The study also points to the power and counter-power relations between certain immigrant student groups with strong solidarity and other non-belonging students. There is also a power and counter-power dynamic between authorities making decisions affecting the immigrant students' life situation and resistance to these decisions. The...

Internasional Utvecksling i Laerutdanning, 28-30 oktober, 2020. Trondheim, Norge. Via Zoom, 2020

European Conference for Education Research (ECER 2019), 3-6 September, 2019, Hamburg, Tyskland., 2019

World Studies in Education

Course materials in teacher education programmes are one of the means to support young teachers l... more Course materials in teacher education programmes are one of the means to support young teachers learn content knowledge and pedagogical theories. The materials are chosen to support their learning in a range of areas, and this article presents the findings of a study that explored how Swedish preschool student teachers perceived their course materials in relation to internationalisation and intercultural practice. Questionnaires were administered to students in a preschool teacher education at a Swedish university through the Survey and Report tool, and 94 students responded. Findings indicate that the responding student teachers valued content and materials for three key reasons: (i) materials that were localised, (ii) practice-oriented, and (iii) prepared them for working specifically in Swedish preschools. Identity as a Swedish preschool teacher (Swedish context and preschool teaching focus) appeared to be of greater influence in determining the responding students’ value of cont...

This study investigates prominent themes about newly arrived immigrant students' situation in lif... more This study investigates prominent themes about newly arrived immigrant students' situation in life and at school as reflected in interviews with four teachers in a vocational upper secondary school located in a Swedish city suburb dominated by residents with immigrant background. Foucault's concept of power and counter-power as well as Riessman's narrative analysis are used to discuss and analyse the interviewed teachers' descriptions. The results highlight the power and counter-power mechanisms involved in the discrepancy between well-behaved and ambitious immigrant students and the media representations of the students' housing area as criminal. The study also points to the power and counter-power relations between certain immigrant student groups with strong solidarity and other non-belonging students. There is also a power and counter-power dynamic between authorities making decisions affecting the immigrant students' life situation and resistance to these decisions. The study contributes valuable information of the mechanisms involved in the lives of newly arrived immigrant young students in Sweden, with possible relevance to similar contexts in other Nordic and European countries.

Critical pedagogy is a transformation-based approach to education. The aim of this article is to ... more Critical pedagogy is a transformation-based approach to education. The aim of this article is to introduce the origin, vision, action and consequences of critical pedagogy. It also aims on finding out about educators’ possibility of actualising it in their practice. As a source materials articles, book chapters and books are used. The literature shows that critical pedagogy has its origin in the tradition of critical theory of the Frankfurt School and the work of the Brazilian pedagog Paulo Freire. According to the literature, its major theses is that education should go beyond transfer of knowledge and training the future labour force; to help developing critical consciousness, which leads to transformation of the individual, learning environment and society at large. Critical pedagogy is criticised for a focus on macro level system, for not having a model for classroom implementation and for being abstract. Despite some critics, I argue that critical pedagogy has still the potenti...

This study explores how preschool student teochers perceive their course materials in relation to... more This study explores how preschool student teochers perceive their course materials in relation to internotionolisotion ond interculturol proctice. Questionnoires were odministered through the Survey ond Report tool to 648 students, with 94 (14.5%) responding. Forty-eight percent of therespondents felt thot course materials ond content they encountered did not help them to goin in-depth knowledge on internotionolisotion. Some students indicoted thot they do not wont literoture in English longuoge included. They were open to more contoct with internotionol students locolly ond online. Respondents indicoted the perception thot Swedish ond Nordic preschools ore unique. lnsteod of internotionolisotion, the concept of interculturolity wosresonont with the students' identity os Swedish preschool teochers.They volued procticol, teoching-reloted content ond the procticum opportunities to leorn obout interculturolity in the field

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss about precolonial and colonial education and t... more Purpose: The purpose of this article is to discuss about precolonial and colonial education and the development of the education systems in the postcolonial Africa. The paper will deal with the questions whether there were any education systems in precolonial Africa and motives for introducing the colonial education systems. Further the relation of the colonial education systems with the needs of the local society, the postcolonial education systems and their future will be analysed. Methodology: Postcolonial perspective is a theoretical frame for the study. A desk-research was conducted to identify and select the relevant literature. Content analysis was used as a method to understand, analyse and interpret the literature. Findings: The results of the literature review show that there were socialization mechanisms before colonialism in African societies. Education introduced in its modern form by missionaries was supposed to serve mainly religious purposes and to train low level ...

Teacher Education and Diversity, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, 3-4 December 2018., 2018

International practicum for what and on whose terms? ... more International practicum for what and on whose terms? Getahun Yacob Abraham Senior Lecturer Karlstad University The aim of this paper is to investigate about the aims of international practicum and who is benefiting from it. If it is found that one side, the North or the South, is benefiting, to look at the possibilities to reconsider the practicum in order to benefit both. Review of literature in the field and my own experiences as a Swedish university lecturer involved in the teacher students practicum in the South will be the base for this paper. Some preliminary results of my literature review show that practicum in the South mainly focuses on giving the teacher students from the North the possibility of intercultural understanding with specific focus of dealing with change taking place at home, the diversity of students in classrooms (Abraham & von Brömssen, 2018; Bosire & Brigham, 2009; Marx & Moss, 2011; Wiken & Klein, 2017). Long time experiences show that in the movement of students from the North to the South, the economically and politically dominant countries can dictate the terms (Bosire & Brigham, 2009; Yang, 2002). In addition to that the countries in the center gain more advantages than the countries in the periphery (Barnet & Reggie, 1995). Keywords: Internationalization, International practicum, teacher students, North, South. References Abraham, G.Y. & von Brömssen, K. (2018). Internationalisation in teacher education: Student teachers reflections on experiences from a field study in South Africa. Education Inquiry. https://www-tandfonline-com.bibproxy.kau.se/doi/full/10.1080/20004508.2018.1428035 Barnet, G.A. & Yingli Wu, R. (1995). The international student exchange network. 1970&1980, Higher Education, 30, 353-368. Bosire, M.M. & Brigham, S. (2009). Preparing North American preserivice teachers for global perspectives: An international teaching practicum experiences in Africa, The Alberta Journal of Education Research, 55 (3), 415-428. Marx, H. & Moss, D.M. (2011). Please mind the culture gap: Intercultural development during a teacher education study abroad program, Journal of Teacher Education, 62 (1), 35-37. Wikan, G. & Klein, J. (2017). Can international practicum foster intercultural competence among teacher students? Journal of the European Teacher Education Network, 12, 95-104. Yang, R. (2002). University internationalization: Its meaning, rationales and implications, Intercultural Education, 13 (1), 81-95.

Role models was one of the themes for lessons in the Foundation Phase in the South AfricanRevised... more Role models was one of the themes for lessons in the Foundation Phase in the South AfricanRevised National Curriculum Statement of 2002 (RNCS; Department of Education, 2002).The focus of the article is to discuss how teachers understood, interpreted and presented thetheme to their pupils and how their pupils responded to it. The study is based on policy texts,observation of lessons and textbooks. Foucault’s concepts of normalisation and normalisingjudgment and Connell’s concepts of masculinity and sex roles are used to analyse results. Theresults of the study show similarities and differences in understanding and preferences of rolemodels by teachers and pupils. While teachers emphasised officially known people as rolemodels, some pupils considered family members and other people in their neighbourhood.Mandela was a favoured role model in most classes. Even if the theme of the lessons was rolemodels, I argue that the covert agenda is normalising pupils to the existing dominant socia...

Medycyna Ogólna i Nauki o Zdrowiu, 2021

African Journal of Education and Practice, 2022

Purpose: This study assesses the educational visions of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere and what... more Purpose: This study assesses the educational visions of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere and what contemporary Africa can learn from their thoughts and visions. Methodology: A selective literature review was conducted of historical and contemporary academic texts of Nkrumah and Nyerere and other writers. Findings: The results show that Nkrumah and Nyerere emphasised the need for further educational development in their own and other countries in Africa. They also stressed relating education to the local reality and the relevance of adopting usable knowledge and experiences from other parts of the world. The instrumentality of education to change the life of the masses was given a vital place in their work. For Nkrumah and Nyerere, education should aim to create equity among the population instead of contributing to the rise of an elite class that prioritises its interests rather than the interests of society at large. They stressed that education should not be too theoretical at the...

African Journal of Education and Practice, 2022

Abstract Purpose: This study assesses the educational visions of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere... more Abstract
Purpose: This study assesses the educational visions of Kwame Nkrumah and Julius Nyerere and what contemporary Africa can learn from their thoughts and visions.

Methodology: A selective literature review was conducted of historical and contemporary academic texts of Nkrumah and Nyerere and other writers.

Findings: The results show that Nkrumah and Nyerere emphasised the need for further educational development in their own and other countries in Africa. They also stressed relating education to the local reality and the relevance of adopting usable knowledge and experiences from other parts of the world. The instrumentality of education to change the life of the masses was given a vital place in their work. For Nkrumah and Nyerere, education should aim to create equity among the population instead of contributing to the rise of an elite class that prioritises its interests rather than the interests of society at large. They stressed that education should not be too theoretical at the expense of practical activities.

A unique contribution to theory, practice and policy. The views and actions of Nkrumah and Nyerere have received criticism, but their visions are still relevant for contemporary Africa and beyond. I argue that those who are researching decolonisation and reform in education in African countries should consider reviewing the thoughts and visions of these pioneers. Their visions can lead to a better theoretical understanding to develop sustainable policies and practices that will alleviate the problems facing the individual countries as well as the continent.
Keywords: Contemporary Africa, Decolonisation, Education, Nkrumah, Nyerere, Pan-Africanism, Visions

Post-Graduate and New Researchers ' Pre-Conference This paper has been peer-reviewed but doe... more Post-Graduate and New Researchers ' Pre-Conference This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination. Citation for the published paper:

Book review: Education, Social Progress, and Marginalized Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: Histori... more Book review: Education, Social Progress, and Marginalized Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: Historical Antecedents and Contemporary Challenges

Journal of Praxis in Higher Education

Journal of Education and Culture Studies

Skandinavisk tidsskrift for yrker og profesjoner i utvikling

Internasional Utvecksling i Laerutdanning, 28-30 oktober, 2020. Trondheim, Norge. Via Zoom, 2020

European Conference for Education Research (ECER 2019), 3-6 September, 2019, Hamburg, Tyskland., 2019

World Studies in Education

Teacher Education and Diversity, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, 3-4 December 2018., 2018

Medycyna Ogólna i Nauki o Zdrowiu, 2021

African Journal of Education and Practice, 2022

Methodology: A selective literature review was conducted of historical and contemporary academic texts of Nkrumah and Nyerere and other writers.

This conference paper will address some problems facing Southern/African universities. Instead of... more This conference paper will address some problems facing Southern/African universities. Instead of detailed discussion of general problems facing universities in Southern/Africa, it will focus on universities
relation to their funding partners such as the state and external donors, as well as their role as higher education institution in terms of teaching, research and the outreach/community services program. We believe postcolonial investigation into higher education helps universities to look into their past and its impact on their present. Through researching indigenous knowledge systems, they can find out about locally developed knowledge that they can integrate into their educational curricula. Concepts from critical theories could be used to analyse universities relations to their funders, their teaching-learning process, their research and their outreach to their communities. Specifically, through using critical pedagogic approach, they can prepare their students to critically view the reality of their societies, to find out their needs and to participate in the process of their transformation. On the base of these perspectives, hopefully universities could address the problems of inequalities caused by class, gender, ethnicity and race.