This study focuses on how school management teams manage the school-based continuous
professional development of the teachers at their schools. The assumption is that continuous
professional development - if school-based - may be more practical in implementing changes
because the teachers will be working in a familiar context when managing their own
development and in meeting the specific needs of their school. At present the professional
development of teachers consists mainly of external workshops and courses. Teachers then return
to the school context that has not changed to accommodate what has been learnt at these
workshops or courses. The lack of feedback or follow-up has done little to encourage teachers to
implement any changes in their teaching practice. The study also explores the practice of school
management teams in creating collaborative school cultures for the implementation of schoolbased
continuous professional development. The rationale for this study is based on the urgent need for continuous professional development
to be part of the schools’ development of teachers. The National Policy Framework for Teacher
Education and Development provides the frame of reference. There is, however, a gap in the
policy on how continuous professional development should be implemented to create a
collaborative school culture and the role that the school management team plays in doing this.
The aim of the study was to determine how school management teams managed continuous
professional development at their schools; to identify the challenges they faced in managing
school-based continuous professional development; and to explore the strategies that contributed
to successful school-based continuous professional development.
The research methodology employed in this study is a Triangulation Mixed Methods Design.
Qualitative and quantitative data was collected simultaneously and analysed separately to
understand the research problem. The sample consisted of principals, deputy principals and heads
of department of primary schools who were interviewed. Questionnaires were administered to
Level 1 teachers at these schools. The interviews were analysed by identifying emerging patterns,
themes and categories. The questionnaires were analysed by presenting descriptive statistics
about the schools and then inferential statistics were determined that correlated and tested the
hypotheses. The results were reported in the form of summaries from the interviews and graphs
from the questionnaires. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:up/oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/40393 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Brijkumar, Amritha |
| Contributors | Ogina, Teresa Auma, amrithabrijkumar@gmail.com |
| Publisher | University of Pretoria |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Rights | © 2013 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
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