“Research based transformation in teacher education should be about basing teacher preparation on the latest empirical evidence and not on how we were taught decades ago”, said Dr Charmaine Villet, Dean of the Faculty of Education. She was speaking at the recent 17th Biennial BOLESWANA International Educational Research Symposium. About 110 participants from Australia, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, USA and Zambia gathered at UNAM’s Khomasdal Campus.

The main theme was “Research for the Transformation of Teacher Education: Teaching for Equity and Relevance”. Topics discussed ranged from curriculum design and implementation, issues of the 21st Century educational praxis, issues that are informed by ICT applications, social media and cyber space induced virtual realities.

BOLESWANA is an educational research network consisting of the Botswana Educational Research Association (BERA), the Lesotho Educational Research Association (LERA), the Swaziland Educational Research Association (SERA) and the Namibia Educational Research Association (NERA). BOLESWANA has recently been joined by the South African Educational Research Association (SAERA). The symposium was hosted under the umbrella of the Namibia Educational Research Association (NERA), in partnership with the University of Namibia.

The main goal of the educational research network is to build educational research capacity amongst its sister educational research associations and promote contemporary evidence-based educational policy and practice in its member countries.

The main sponsors of the symposium were NASHUA, NAMPOST, Namibia National Commission for UNESCO, JUTA, Old Mutual and UNAM.