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Teacher education in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) has been criticized for the lack of attention to learning to teach in real classrooms, which limits the opportunity for pre-service teachers to successfully introduce learner-centered pedagogy in African primary school classrooms. To address this problem, Ghana has implemented a teacher education reform since 2004 to incorporate practicum. However, the critical role of teacher educators has been overlooked by policymakers, and few studies have qualitatively investigated their practice and vision. The study draws on qualitative data from the Ghana component of the Teacher Preparation in Africa (TPA) research project to explore eight teacher educators' practice and vision of good teaching of primary mathematics. The study found that teacher educators' practice and vision of good teaching consist of the use of Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) and small group activities following specific steps, without understanding the principles of learnercentered pedagogy that could be applied in a variety of classroom contexts and mathematics topics. The study also identified the hierarchical relationship between teacher educators and school teachers as a major challenge for effective practicum, limiting the opportunity to transform teacher educators' vision and practice of primary mathematics teaching.Recommendations for enhancing professional learning opportunities for teacher educators are offered.

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This paper analyses the evolution of the effects on educational inequality of early marriage by looking at the impact of whether women had married young on their children's schooling outcomes for 25-32 countries (Demographic and Health Surveys) in 2000 and 2010 for Sub-Saharan Africa. We also explore indirect pathways −mother's education, health and empowerment as well as community channels− operating from early marriage to child schooling and assess the presence of negative externalities for non-early married mothers and their children on education transmission in communities with large rates of child marriage. In our econometric analysis we employ OLS, matching, instrumental variables and pseudo-panel for a better understanding of changes over time. Our results show that early marriage is still a significant source of inequality, though its impact has decreased across time: girls born to early married mothers are between 6%-11% more likely to never been to school and 1.6%-1.7% to enter late, and 3.3%-5.1% less likely to complete primary school, whereas boys are between 5.2%-8.8% more likely to never been to school and 1%-1.9% to enter late, and 2.3%-5.5% less likely to complete primary school. Second, child marriage increases gender inequality within household's with girls losing an additional 0.07 years of schooling as compared to boys if born to early married mothers. Third, our estimates show that mother's education and health mediate some of the effect of early marriage and that the large prevalence of child marriage in a community also impairs educational transmission for non-early married mothers. Fourth, empowering of young wives can weaken other channels of transmission of education inequalities. Overall, our findings highlight the need to target these children with the appropriate interventions and support to achieve the greater focus on equity in the global post-2015 education agenda.

Background. Age of marriage is a barrier to mother's health care around pregnancy and children health outcomes.

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