Recent Developments of Teacher Profession in African and Asian Countries -From overview of Zambian Education Forum Part II-

This article tries to review and analyze that how the scholars who presented at the Zambian Education Forum (ZEF) catch actual condition of teacher profession in African and Asian countries. Before into analyzing, it is necessary to explain about ZEF and its back ground. The purpose was that to provide an opportunity for the people interested in education to share some knowledge and experiences about educational development in Zambia and in other countries. The forum was divided into two parts; One is " Research Dissemination Seminar " (Part I), and the other is " International Experience Sharing Seminar on Teaching Professional Development " (Part II). Since 2002, Hiroshima University (HU) in Japan has sent some graduate students to Zambia as volunteers through Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), which programme is called " Zambia Programme. " It has two purposes: to conduct educational researches and to implement more practical and sustainable volunteer activities in basic schools and other institutions in Zambia. With this program progressing, the University of Zambia (UNZA) and Hiroshima University (HU) started to co-organize a research dissemination seminar annually in UNZA. A number of domestic researchers participate in it. This year, the seminars are arranged as the Part I in this forum. On the other hand, HU is the secretariat of an international network, " Africa-Asia University Dialogue for Educational Development (A-A) " １ , which is approved by UNESCO as UNITWIN. It has twenty-eight member universities in Africa and Asia, let alone UNZA. By making use of this network, international seminars have been held in some countries and ended in success. In addition, one of the important roles of the network is to share the experiences of educational development in each country with people from other countries. The Part II held in based on above A-A network. That is why, hot and meaningful dialogue were developed among the African and the Asian Scholars in ZEF. The two different types of the seminars will be combined on the basis of the relationships between UNZA and HU. The Part I is focused on Zambian domestic educational development, and Part II is on the experiences not only in Zambia but also in other countries. This forum was widely opened to Zambian audiences including educational administrators, researchers, teachers and students.