Teaching to the test and teaching for holistic education are two views that educators are much concerned about in the teaching and learning processes. Moreover, they have been under discussion for decades, not only in the developing countries especially those South of the Sahara, but even in the already developed countries like the UK and USA among many others. Teaching to the test claims a bigger practice priority in Uganda’s secondary education by primarily focusing on preparing students to pass national examinations for future employment, at the expense of addressing other human aspects of learning that go beyond the test but crucial dimensions that make them fully human beings. Without undermining this role of education in spurring growth and development of any country through preparing its labour force, the industrial mindset in education perpetuates teaching to the test for academic certificates and qualifications. This thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding and useful insight into the meaning and purpose of education as not only lying in preparing students for what makes them useful for something. Rather, education entails in what makes individuals becoming fully human and be their true selves, a state that defines human flourishing. This is an under researched area, where the available literature mainly focusses on policies that emphasise students’ flourishing in employable skills only, with limited consideration for their overall holistic development to flourish as complete human beings. In an effort to fill out this vacuum, this study was prompted to explore the perspectives of education administrators in Uganda, considering the possibility of merging the two approaches in Uganda’s secondary education aimed at students’ complete human flourishing. Following a phenomenological qualitative methodology, findings from this study indicate that focusing only on examination-oriented teaching falls short of the ideal and pays less attention to the social, psychological, spiritual, physical, and moral aspects of students’ human nature. Despite preparing human capital for economic successes, one cannot flourish through employment alone without possessing moral humanistic values. The study is influenced by the Aristotelian traditions of human flourishing with specific reference to his theorisation of moral character formation for human values which finds expression in working not only for the good of self, but also for the common good of others. This is achieved through holistic education which has the potential to integrate a person’s human aspects for one’s human flourishing.
- Holistic education
- Human flourishing
The possibility of teaching to the test and equally teaching for holistic education at secondary level, developing students’ full potential for human flourishing: an exploration of the perspectives of education administrators in Uganda
Nnambi, S. (Author). 28 May 2024
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis