Situating professional development within the school context : a case study of a further education and training (FET) school.
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Date
2007
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Abstract
Traditional professional development approaches to assist teachers to implement the
new curriculum in South Africa have come under criticism. This is because these do
not provide the ongoing, context sensitive support that teachers need to improve their
practice. This has raised the importance of situating teacher learning within the school
context. This study explored how a group of teachers gave meaning to and expressed
their understanding of themselves and their experience of school-based professional
development. The purpose of the study was to understand the nature of school-based
professional development at an FET school.
In attempting to address the research questions, this study adopted a qualitative,
interpretive approach. Since human interaction and context are important in the
qualitative interpretative study, the tenets of symbolic interactionism were drawn on
to guide this research study. This study also drew on the concepts of situated learning
theory, which stresses the importance of context and therefore supports, the notion
that learning opportunities should be grounded in environments where problems arise.
This was a case study of a secondary peri-urban school in KwaZulu-Natal. lt involved
three teachers who were purposefully selected. Data was gathered through three
qualitative methods i.e. observation, interviews and a reflective journal. A process of
open coding was used to analyse and interpret data.
Findings reveal that the school did recognise the importance of schools as places
where teachers can learn. However, the contextual factors such as inside politics, staff
relations within the school, as well as the way management handled their role in
managing professional development in the school made it a challenge to organise and
promote collective teacher learning. lt further reveals that as a result of the difficulties
and inconsistency of the official professional development programme, teacher
learning was in fact taking place in various other ways. These included department
meetings';-infQr:mal-teacher collaboration and mentoring. The study also reveals that
various contextual factors affected curriculum development implementation. These
included a lack of resources, large classes and learners' backgrounds.
Description
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.
Keywords
Teachers--In-service training., Teachers--In-service training--South Africa., Theses--Education.