150 Maslow hierarchy, suggesting a sense of autonomy and self-directedness on the part of teachers. The South African Council for Educators (SACE) also has a mandate to support the system in developing autonomous and confident teachers by way of allocating Professional Development points for any self-initiated professional development, school-initiated and externally initiated professional development activities. At the time of writing, principals and deputy principals as the first cohort were going through the CPTD orientation and sign-up process to start earning professional development points. The second cohort comprising teachers is to follow at a later stage. Having teachers that exhibit an intrinsic impetus to engage in continuous professional development, coupled with incentives to take up CDP courses will go a long way in ensuring the development of an autonomous teaching force.
5.8 Non-participation in qualification-driven professional development
151 Table 5.8.1: Non-participation in qualification-driven CPD programs in three KZN districts
District
Total District 1 District 2 District 3
Registered/
completed a programme
No Count 7 12 7 26
% within registered/
completed a programme
26.9% 46.2% 26.9% 100.0%
% of Total 4.6% 8.2% 4.6% 17.4%
Yes Count 53 41 32 123
% within registered/
completed a programme
43.1% 31.7% 25.2% 100.0%
% of Total 34.9% 25.7% 20.4% 80.9%
Total Count 60 53 39 152
% within registered/
completed a programme
39.5% 34.9% 25.7% 100.0%
% of Total 39.5% 34.9% 25.7% 100.0%
5.8.2 Reasons for non-participation in qualification CPD programmes
For those teachers who specified that they were neither registered nor had completed any upgrade studies, four items were put on a 5-point Likert scale (strongly disagree = 1 to strongly agree =5) to establish their reasons for such. As shown in the table below, possible barriers ranged from lack of financial support to not being aware of available upgrade opportunities. For analysis purposes, the categories ‘strongly agree’ and ‘agree’ were collapsed into a single category of ‘agree’ and ‘strongly disagree’ and ‘disagree’ were collapsed into a single category of ‘disagree’. The neutral category remained unchanged.
Table 5.8.2: Reasons for non-participation in qualification CPD programmes
Percentage of teachers
Items Agree Neutral Disagree
1. I do not have financial means to study further. 67.2 8.2 24.6 2. I have too much work at school and so I can’t
make time to study.
41.7 13.3 45.0
3. The universities are too far and inaccessible. 32.8 8.2 59.0 4. I am not aware of options available for me to
improve my qualifications.
20.3 10.2 69.5
152 The results in table 5.8.2 shows that lack of financial support was the highest contributor to non-participation in qualification CPD programmes by teachers, with 67% of the teachers indicating this. There was no agreement on workload as a constraint in enrolling for qualification CPD programmes, with virtually the same percentage of teachers responding either affirmatively (42%) or negatively to the statement (45%). These responses indicated that workloads for individual teachers were not necessarily equivalent, therefore suggesting that teachers were affected differently.
A fairly large percentage (59%) of teachers believed that universities were within reach and did not see this as an obstacle to attaining further qualifications. So, only a third of the teachers attributed their non-enrolment for CPD programmes to inaccessibility of higher learning institutions. Similarly, the majority of the teachers (70%) appeared to be aware of upgrade opportunities, with a mere 20% citing lack of information as a holdup for signing up for qualification upgrade programme.
In a different set of items seeking explanations for non-engagement in qualification-driven CPD activities, teachers were asked whether they believed that they were qualified and competent enough, or had acquired adequate teaching or it was mere lack of motivation that kept them from enrolling for further studies. Teachers’ responses are presented in the table below.
Table 5.8.3: Reasons for non-participation in qualification CPD programmes showing percentage, mean and standard deviation
Percentage
Items Agree Neutral Disagree
1. I have acquired enough teaching experience. 20.9 8.1 71.0 2. I simply have no motivation to study further. 11.3 8.1 80.6 3. I am competent in content knowledge and
therefore do not need to study further.
8.3 5.0 86.7 4. I believe that I am qualified enough and thus
do not need to engage in any further studies.
4.9 4.9 90.2
The results in the table above clearly show that a large proportion of the teachers neither perceived themselves to be highly qualified (90%) nor did they believe that they were highly competent in content knowledge (87%) to not engage in further studies. By the same token, a significant fraction of the teachers neither believed that they had acquired adequate teaching
153 experience (71%) nor did they lack motivation (80.7%) to take up qualification programmes.
From these results it became evident that the key factor that prevented teachers the most from enrolling in qualification CPD programmes was lack of financial support, rather than motivation to study further.
A further analysis was performed to determine how lack of finance in particular, as a perceived barrier for non-participation in qualification PD programmes affected teachers differently in different districts. A radar chart below illustrates how lack of finance in particular affected teachers from each district. A point closer to the centre on the chart indicates a less significant factor, whilst a point near the edge represents a more significant factor.
Figure 5.8.1: Lack of finance as a barrier for participation in CPD programmes per district
Teachers from all three districts were affected mostly by lack of finance, albeit with a difference of about 5% between each district. As noted by the Subject Advisor, it is largely the teachers from rural districts that mostly require financial support.
There are a lot of teachers who could benefit from department subsidies, especially those from deep rural districts. To me if these teachers could be motivated to take up CPD programmes and be assisted financially by the department, really we would see change. Universities are the centre of knowledge so if teachers take up these courses they would be empowered. But that needs to be done on a wider scale. (Subject Advisor)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Lack of finance
Heavy workload
Universities inaccessible Unaware of
options available
District 1 District 2 District 3
154 Generally, during any curriculum change, teachers feel externally propelled into learning.
Whilst learning needs to be self-endorsed, extrinsic factors such as the lack of financial support may hinder teachers’ motivation to register for higher studies. There has to a balance between intrinsic and extrinsic factors which motivate teachers to learn (Smith et al., 2003).
Individual teachers that develop internal motivation to engage in continuous learning need support from relevant authorities to ensure that external factors do not interfere with teachers’
enthusiasm to learn. Therefore targeting teachers eligible for upgrading through higher education studies and providing them with a subsidy will go a long way in ensuring that the pool of South African teaching corps engaged in higher learning activities is increased.
Research shows that people learn best when they are self-regulated (Knowles, 1998; Bell &
Gilbert, 1994; Merriam, 2001; Thompson, 2001); therefore subsidies have to be accompanied by intrinsic willingness to learn on the part of teachers. Through informal conversations with the UKZN ACE Biological Sciences students, it became evident that despite many teachers not having received the DoE bursaries, they remained highly motivated. It is this calibre of teachers that need to be targeted for further development. As pointed out by many scholars, a more learned teaching force benefits not only the teachers but brings about improved learner outcomes (Fullan, 1991; Guskey, 2000; Borko, 2004).
The provincial departments also need to pay attention to possible discrepancies when bursaries are provided for teachers to enrol for higher education studies. Teachers from rural districts are undoubtedly the neediest because of their low levels of qualification and would benefit from intentional targeting for qualification upgrading by way of providing subsidies.
It is worth noting here that during data collection efforts were made by the KZN DoE to intensify registration of teachers for upgrade programmes by way of providing bursaries. A circular on various subsidies was released, inviting teachers to submit applications so that they could register for qualification programmes. The channels of communication when these circulars were released were unclear. For example, when the call came out, it appeared that subject advisors were not necessarily involved or even informed. It is important to ensure that such crucial information reaches the targeted audience especially teachers in rural districts.
Proper communication with service providers is also critical in this regard. Because the timing of the release of the circular was not negotiated with the affected providers, serious delays have been experienced in universities receiving payment of bursaries from the DoE on time.
155