Continuous professional development for quality education : teachers’ experiences in quintile 1-3 schools in Katlehong, Gauteng Province

Abstract

This study focuses on continuous professional training and development (CPTD) because teachers are part of debates about improving the quality of the schooling system in South Africa. The study considers both policy formulation and teachers' experiences of CPTD policy and workshop programmes. The policies are the National Policy Framework on Teacher Education and Development (NPFTED henceforth) in South Africa and the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa (ISPFTED henceforth). The study employed a qualitative research framework within a social constructivist paradigm. It draws on 24 interviews with teachers who have worked, and those who are currently working, in quintile 1 - 3 schools in Katlehong, Gauteng Province.

The study found that policy frames teachers as autonomous professionals who independently acknowledge and partake in their professional development. Their work is seen as a noble responsibility towards learners and South Africa at large in terms of developing future leaders. Within these frames, the policy ideals and images of teachers do, in some instances, match what teachers understand to be their responsibility and mandate. However, some teachers expressed dissatisfaction with workshop programmes. Teachers also encountered varied social conditions within the communities and schools, and these complicated their work. These conditions included poor infrastructure, overcrowding, limited resources, policy prescriptions, collapsing family structures and learner discipline issues, which hindered the teaching process and often called for teachers to employ different types of knowledge and skills to tackle them.

The study found that the persistent gap between policy formulation and implementation in South Africa is due to enduring legacies of societal inequalities and contemporary failures. The dissertation argues that, without meaningful engagement with teachers from the context of the teaching and learning processes, the CPTD policy and its associated workshop programmes become an obligation that does not serve teachers' professional needs or the education of learners. Therefore, the simultaneous consideration of policy and experiences helps us see policy as a process of struggle and contestation within education processes.