The study seeks out to generate knowledge on how teachers understand and experience SBTPD and the factors that impact on the implementation of SBTPD. One of the pertinent areas in addressing transformation in education is the improvement of teacher practice and competence through SBTPD (Botman, 2016). The central purpose of the implementation of SBTPD is to produce and preserve a culture of teacher professional development and teacher professionalism
17
in schools. When schools are treated as learning organisations for teachers and a knowledge framework for effectively implementing and managing SBTPD in schools is presented, it will be another significant invention in educational transformation. SBTPD is aimed at improving the professional knowledge bases (content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, conceptual and procedural knowledge) skills and attitudes of teachers to improve their productivity in teaching (Croft, Coggs hall, Dolan, Powers & Killion, 2010). Through generating new knowledge on the implementation of SBTPD, this study hopes to encourage different stakeholders to be cognisant of their positions and functions in the implementation and management of SBTPD. One of the findings in a qualitative exploratory study on professional leadership tasks of South African school principals by Van Niekerk and Muller (2017) was that school principals required empowerment in managing, monitoring and supporting the training and development needs of teachers in their schools. School principals are uniquely positioned to control the implementation and to shape the general quality of SBTPD and will, hopefully, be able to significantly influence SBTPD in four key roles, which Bredeson and Johansson (2000) identify as stewards, models, experts, and instructional leaders, and therefore, need to engage in practices that support SBTPD in their schools.
Secondly, this study seeks to contribute new knowledge to the recognition, acknowledgement and acceptance of the school as a learning organisation for the continuous implementation of SBTPD. One of the theories used in this study, the social learning theory, emphasises that the context of learning becomes situated within teachers’ everyday practices, particularly at their workplace, the school. The teachers who are the implementers and the practitioners of SBTPD are the ones directly involved in the implementation of SBTPD. According to King (2016), there is no evidence that shows how teachers implement and put up with new practices and this is related to how teachers conceptualise SBTPD, hence one of the research questions of this study is how teachers, school principals and the circuit manager experience and understand SBTPD. Many view SBTPD as once-off courses or in-service trainings rather than embracing an extensive outlook such as where SBTPD is neither defined by workshops nor trainings, but as the outcomes of such as well as daily classroom experiences, particularly for teachers (Priestley, Miller, Barrett & Wallace, 2011). The school principal’s leadership in the area of teacher professional development is important to the establishment, maintenance and realisation of a school learning community. One of the dynamics of SBTPD is that part of the principal’ s role is to inculcate life-long learning into
18
the everyday life of learners and teachers (Bredeson & Johansson, 2000), while managing and monitoring the implementation of all SBTPD programmes in the school. In their study on the rhetoric versus reality of teachers’ professional development in schools, Gemeda, Fiorucci and Catarci (2014) identify lack of support and monitoring and ineffective educational leadership as some of the barriers to adequate SBTPD. Hence the study’s intention to encourage all stakeholders to be cognisant of their roles and responsibilities in ensuring that SBTPD is successfully implemented, managed and monitored.
Thirdly, through the experiences of teachers and school principals, the study seeks to contribute knowledge regarding the extent of support and monitoring they require in the implementation and management of SBTPD. Providing necessary support for teacher learning and growth is a fundamental role for school principals and circuit managers. In a qualitative study on designing continuous development programmes for teachers in South Africa, Luneta (2012) found that some of the support required by teachers included school principals’ creation of a learning environment in which teachers can seize opportunities, try out with new practices, and apply resourcefulness. This view is supported by Alexandrou and Swaffield (2012), in their study on teacher leadership and professional development, when they assert that school principals have a particular responsibility to support and encourage professional development in all its forms. Poekert (2012) alludes to SBTPD as one of the components central to school reform and school improvement. While concurring with Mangin and Stoelinga (2010) that districts have a much bigger role to play in the improvement of learner performance through professional teacher development, in a study on the link between teacher professional development and school improvement, Poekert (2012) claims that through ongoing inquiry and enactment of high-quality leadership, school principals and district officials can provide that necessary support that teachers require to effectively implement SBTPD.
Kafyulilo (2013) argues that teachers’ professional development has been described as a catalyst for school improvement and learner performance in all subjects. Resonating with this view, is Bryan (2011) in a study on professional development in Limpopo Province, the author noted progress in teachers’ content knowledge and practice. SBTPD allows teachers to gain a deeper subject knowledge through professional learning communities (PLC) and a culture of a collaborative environment resulting in the most measurable result of investing in SBTPD, which
19
is improved learner achievement. However, to be effective, SBTPD needs to be viewed as the actual development of knowledge and skills for teachers (King, 2014) and result in new practices for teachers (King, 2016), rather than the traditional sense of inputs and courses that teachers undertake in the name of professional development. King’s (2016) qualitative study, on supporting teachers’ professional learning through continuing professional development, found that the value of SBTPD can only be effective when it leads to growth of teacher expertise and sustainability maintain change which results in improved learner performance. The author further asserts that teacher professional development is broadly acknowledged as an enabling factor for enhancing learner performance, thereby benefitting both teachers and learners as both are learning and have a restored awareness of the learning process.