South African teachers’ perspectives on continuing professional development: a case study of the Mpumalanga Secondary Science Initiative

Challenges influencing teachers' involvement in continuous professional development: A South African perspective

“…The first theme addresses certain aspects of CPD (Gulston, 2010;Lessing & De Witt, 2007;Mestry, Hendricks, & Bisschoff, 2009;Mokhele & Jita, 2010;Somo, 2007;Steyn, 2005Steyn, , 2009Steyn, & 2011, inter alia, the perceptions, experiences, challenges and expectations of teachers and the role of principals regarding CPD at schools. As this paper focusses on the challenges to participate in PD, reference to previous research here will only concentrate on this.…”

“…As this paper focusses on the challenges to participate in PD, reference to previous research here will only concentrate on this. For example, the research of Mokhele and Jita (2010) identified the challenge for policy and management to find ways to understand what the teachers want and what they will find personally meaningful, and to design CPD programmes that respond to teachers' needs, whereas Mestry et al (2009) point to the sensitive challenge to initiate and manage teacher DPs centrally but with the involvement of the schools. The research of Steyn (2011) also reveals challenges for management and states that one of the great challenges principals face is how to encourage teachers to become committed to their own PD, while the research of Gulston (2010) concludes that principals either are not competent enough or simply not willing to develop their teachers, and that improvement of skills and knowledge of teachers through CPD related activities are challenges.…”

“…Similarly, the research of Mokhele and Jita (2010) concludes that teachers should be involved in the planning of CPD programmes, and that the programmes should be aligned with their personal conditions and motivations, while Nir and Bogler (2008) assert that creating a school climate in which teachers have an influence over the planning and implementation of PD processes may motivate these teachers to become active in their own CPD.…”

South African rural teachers’ reflections on their problems of practice: taking modest steps in professional development

“…While professional development of teachers is very well established in most developed countries, Mokhele andJita (2010, p. 1763) remind us that a focus on the nation's skills, which would include teaching skills, is relatively new in South Africa. Consequently, the models that we adopt for the professional development of teachers need to be critically evaluated within the contexts of the relative infancy of professional development initiatives and from the perspectives of the participating teachers.…”

Promoting student teachers’ adaptive capabilities through community engagement

“…Hope, "as an ontological need, demands an anchoring in practice" (Freire, 1992: 9) and this is more likely in our view, to afford students space to develop a critical awareness of society and their role in it, while simultaneously appreciating the unique contributions that they can make. According to Mokhele andJita (2010: 1764) as well as Ono and Ferreira (2010), through collaboration between universities and the community as a whole, both stand to benefit. We concur with Laredo (2007) and Stephenson (2011: 95) who assert that students at university need to think of their role in community engagement not simply as the provision of technical assistance that may be drawn from archives, knowledge or from research and development prowess, but as an opportunity for social leadership.…”