New teaching model offers a way forward for Zimbabwe’s multigrade classrooms

A new study in Zimbabwe highlights the challenges teachers face in rural multigrade classrooms, while limited necessary training, teaching materials, and instructional support, making it difficult to teach students from different grade levels simultaneously. Drawing on qualitative evidence from teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators, the researchers developed a six-step progressive teaching model to strengthen classroom management, teacher preparation, and learning outcomes in multigrade settings.

Teacher education in many developing countries has long been criticized for emphasizing theory while offering insufficient preparation for the realities of classroom practice. As a result, providing quality education to remote rural communities remains a persistent challenge. Published on May 19 2026 in ECNU Review of Education (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20965311261437798), the study examines this challenge in Zimbabwe's fast-track resettlement satellite schools, where multigrade teaching has become a common response to low enrolment and limited resources.

The research focuses on satellite schools established following Zimbabwe's Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), which began in 2000. These schools were created to provide education for children living in newly resettled farming communities. Located largely in remote and sparsely populated areas, many lack sufficient enrolment to maintain separate classes for each grade. Teachers therefore often work with students from two or more grade levels in the same classroom.

The study adopted a qualitative case study design informed by interpretivist and grounded theory approaches. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and document reviews. Participants included experienced multigrade teachers, school administrators, and heads of teacher education departments. The researchers used thematic and interpretive analysis to identify recurring patterns and challenges in multigrade settings.

The findings reveal the considerable pedagogical and management challenges created by  the diversity of multigrade classrooms. Many teachers reported having to manage what effectively amounted to two separate classes within a single classroom. They often prepared separate lesson plans, schemes of work, and classroom records for each grade, substantially increasing their workload. Classroom observations further showed that students from different grades were frequently taught separately within the same classroom, often facing different chalkboards and receiving different instruction.

Limited preparation for multigrade teaching emerged as a major concern. Teachers reported that their training focused primarily on monograde classrooms, leaving them with little or no preparation for teaching multigrade classes when they entered satellite schools. Interviews with teacher educators similarly indicated that teacher education curricula do not adequately address the pedagogical and management approaches required in multigrade settings. An analysis of teacher education syllabi reinforced these findings, revealing little content specifically designed to prepare teachers for multigrade classrooms.

Curriculum materials add to these difficulties. Existing textbooks, teachers' guides, and other instructional resources are largely designed for monograde classes. Teachers explained that the lack of materials adapted to multigrade settings often forces them to teach different grades separately rather than build a cohesive learning community. The researchers argue that this mismatch between curriculum design and classroom realities places additional pressure on teachers and makes classroom management more difficult.

The study also draws attention to the gendered dimensions of multigrade teaching. Female teachers described having to balance the demands of managing multigrade classrooms with substantial domestic responsibilities. According to the stud, these pressures may affect career development and contribute to unequal professional experiences between female and male teachers.

To address these challenges, the researchers developed a Sequential Pedagogy Model for Multigrade Classes. The model emphasizes establishing learners' zones of proximal development, presenting content through a developmental sequence that connects grades, assigning practice work to one group while advancing another, and regularly assessing learners' understanding. Its aim is to shift multigrade teaching away from managing multiple several separate classes toward a more integrated pedagogical approach.

The authors conclude that effective multigrade teaching depends on specialized pedagogical training, appropriate curriculum materials, and sustained professional support. They recommend revising teacher education curricula, expanding pre-service and in-service training, developing handbooks on multigrade and gender-responsive pedagogy, and conducting further research into barriers to gender-transformative education in resettlement schools.