SBTPD programmes and activities currently implemented in the schools

Under this theme, the question I sought answers for was what the SBTPD programmes that schools currently had were. In discussion with the teachers from School A, it emerged that they had several activities that were solely for their own teacher development. Here is one view they shared:

First of all, we attend workshops that are provided by the department and we also have our own internal workshops as well, we have IQMS which we do every year, we also have staff development programmes, subject meetings, we are all signed up for CPTD and some of us have gone as far as submitting activities on that website, but some of us are just signed-up members. (Group A)

Another view shared by School A on the SBTPD activities, was that the motivation and leadership provided by the School Management Team (SMT) to all teachers improved their teaching practice and work ethic. This is how they expressed the perspective:

Our SMT provides motivational talks and also outsource people to come and motivate us through talks and workshops, this helps us improve and develop in our teaching and work ethic in general. (Group A)

Teachers from School B revealed that internal workshops and staff development programmes were part of their SBTPD. They shared this view:

The department provides workshops for us for every subject, so we attend them and get developed. We also have our or own internal workshops where the SMT develops us or outsource someone to capacitate us. The SMT also does mentoring of new teachers and the principal conducts staff developments time and again as the need arises. (Group B)

145

We have on-site workshops, staff development meetings, IQMS, subject meetings, phase meetings. I will also count the cluster meetings as well because sometimes we organise them ourselves and we call for outside help. (Group C)

Similarly, in School D, teachers reported that they had similar programmes which were provided by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), as well as their own internal programmes. This was their view:

The department provided us with IQMS and CPTD, however we do coaching and mentoring of novice educators, we have staff development workshops, we have phase meetings and subject meetings. We cluster with other schools in subjects like Mathematics and Languages and we also do PLCs to help and develop each other as teachers. (Group

D)

The school principals in all the researched schools revealed that schools had some forms of their own internal teacher professional development (TPD) programmes, and they had DBE programmes as well. This is what Pa said:

First of all, we have the IQMS, we also have a staff development programme where we mentor teachers, what happens is that all the experienced educators become mentors to the novice and new educators and we normally use the SDT that I talked about earlier.

(Pa)

Pb reported that their TPD activities were a response to the needs of the teachers within the school

and said:

We do have, but they emanate from after we have conducted our IQMS which is done annually. In that process, that is where we discover the professional needs for educators and we draw our programme in response to those professional needs for educators, for instance, now we the Jika iMfundo intervention that come along with CAPS that assist educators to actually implement CAPS, so we have a programme that is crafted which we follow and which assists teachers in their specific problems. (Pb)

Pc indicated that their on-site teacher development (TD) workshops were suggested and facilitated

146

Apart from attending workshops that are organised by the DBE which are at a central venue for all teachers of a specific subject, here at school, we have on-site workshops where we give each other different topics which are suggested by the teachers themselves and those topics are allocated to all teachers to go prepare and workshop all of us. We also have subject and phase meetings, where the subject head or the DH addresses and capacitates teachers on the work that they do in class. and that helps to develop them and learn more in their practice. (Pc)

Similarly, Pd briefly shared the same sentiments and these were his words:

We have internal workshops and staff development programmes. I can also count subject meetings as well as development because it is all about work and continued learning. (Pd)

When the CM responded to the question asking what SBTPD programmes do the schools under his jurisdiction implement, he revealed that while they provided teacher development workshops for all subjects as the employer, they also expected schools to have their own development programmes. These were his words:

As the employer, we have to ensure the continuous development of teachers in all subjects, that is why at the beginning of each term teachers are workshopped, subject advisors also visit schools timeously to offer support to teachers. But we also expect schools to have their own development activities which are internally driven. We also monitor the implementation of the IQMS and the CPTD policies as part of teacher development. (CM)

The above responses seem to reveal that participants were not certain of what they considered as SBTPD programmes from within their schools. What they were convinced of was their implementation of the IQMS and attending departmental workshops. Departmental workshops were not school-based, however, workshops seemed to be the order of the day when it came to the provision and implementation of SBTPD and schools seemed to have almost the same practices with regard to the implementation of SBTD. Workshops that were provided to schools were off- site and were meant to facilitate SBTPD. Beneath the participants’ response to what they had as their TPD programmes, I could sense that they relied on IQMS, CPTD and workshops as guaranteed SBTPD programmes from the DBE.

147

According to Ngcoza and Southwood (2015) and Mpahla and Okeke (2015), TPD programmes in South Africa (SA) comprise mainly workshops, teacher trainings and seminars where there is little actual teacher involvement. Wenger’s (1999) social learning theory indicates that social learning is deemed another learning approach within the field of TPD that could result in innovation and requires teachers to participate actively when they are in the process of obtaining knowledge (see section 3.2).