Teacher Training in Latin America: Improving Education Quality through Place-Based In-Service Teacher Training

While Latin America has impressive numbers compared to other developing regions in terms of education enrollment, there are still many issues related to education quality throughout the region. Part of these issues stem from a lack of proper teacher training initiatives and outdated pedagogical styles, which leave students in Latin American classrooms learning from a wide variety of teachers who could have little to no training. What training these teachers do have is focused on rote learning of standardized material rather than addressing the immediate learning needs of the students. The objective of this research is to further understand the current structure of teacher education in Latin America, along with the importance of place-based education, or making education relevant to the environment where the students are living. This approach is critically important in order to develop potential alternative in-service training strategies for Latin American teachers struggling to provide the best quality education for their particular students. The intervention proposed to address the issues revealed by the literature is a guide for NGOs to create a workshop for in-service teachers in Latin America. The guide will attempt to introduce teachers to place-based education, and give them the support and resources they need to implement place-based lessons in their schools. The intervention will have a small initial impact, but has the potential to grow and make improvements in educational quality in the region