Having established the need for teacher professional development, it has to be placed in context. As noted by several South African researchers like Hofmeyer (1995), Parker (2001), Jansen (1998 and 1999), Maistry (2006), Samuel (1998), Modiba (1996) Day (1999), Lewin, Samuel, and Sayed, (2001) there is a need to see teachers as professional persons with unique life histories and as psychological beings Samuel (1998); Niehaus, Nyburgh and Kok (1995) as against the apartheid Teacher Training approach that treated teachers as consumers and not creators of knowledge. Policy framework and programmes of teacher development within an apartheid South African context have mostly had their focus on the acquisition of skills and knowledge. Teacher training colleges within the guidance of the apartheid ruling party shared the same programmes within separate Departments of Education regarding teacher training. The different teacher training colleges under the previous government located in the various regions had to offer curriculum that articulated the then political climate of racial inequality. In this context, this study will investigate an alternative model for teachers to enable them to be better positioned in terms of policy implementation.
2.3.1 The socio-political environment
The apartheid South African context of teacher development was filled with political undertones, which unfortunately compromised quality in the production of some teachers. During this apartheid period, teachers were trained in different institutions that were racially demarcated. They were trained under a philosophy that taught them to listen and follow instruction and to do what the specialists or pedagogues who had a better understanding of classroom practice dictated (Baxen and Soudien as cited in Jansen and Christie, 1990: 131). Noting this context, it would therefore be crucial that incoming teacher-development policies of the post-apartheid South Africa introduce models that would address these issues.
Training in the colleges designated for non-white race groups produced teachers who were inadequately trained, with most teachers exiting with a one- or two-year Certificate in Education as compared to the well resourced white colleges from which most teachers exited with a three-year diploma qualification in teaching, hence the expressions under-qualified/ill-qualified/unqualified. It is this de-professionalisation of teachers which is of consequence to this peer-driven model of teacher development in this research document. This knowledge of our background makes one keen to find out how prevailing teacher development models are addressing these issues.
Research has shown that there were teachers who, due to socio-economic pressures, had to opt for teaching as the best career to meet their financial and social needs. Nzimande (1996). Hofmeyer and .Hall 1995 National Teacher Audit on Teacher Education, Modiba (1996) Macleod (1995) 63-82”
The “responsible” teacher is “called” to the teaching profession. Those who are not responsible are disdained, but also excused because it seems that teaching was not their calling (they must have gone into it for other reasons, possibly financial).
Students enrolling at institutions for teacher education were almost guaranteed financial support as well as employment by the relevant authorities when they emerged as qualified teachers. Many used this financial incentive to pursue a career in teaching rather than pursuing a career of their choice. Finance became the deciding factor. The financial hegemony could also be linked to qualification types offered in teacher training. Large numbers of qualified black teachers were needed to support the expanding schooling system, without a substantive budget. Hence, one-year and two-year certificate programmes met with the two major demands: (i) the need to train teachers, and (ii) a restricted budget to produce these teachers. My argument within this context therefore is that we are seated with a number of teachers in South Africa who have not embraced the value of Continuing Professional Development for their own growth as teachers. If South Africa, like most parts of the world, is to be concerned with quality education, teachers needed to be provided with an environment that would foster that.
The challenges facing the providers of teacher-development programmes within the new dispensation will be establishing under-resourced teacher-development models that provide programmes which meet the requirements and needs of teachers within the new curriculum. Teachers themselves have, generally, not experienced teacher-development programmes that adequately prepare them for delivery of the new curriculum. Looking at the new national curriculum’s objectives following the 1994 elections, it becomes evident that a number of teachers who were found to be unqualified or under-
qualified to teach the subjects they were to teach, needed retraining, or better still further development.
Within the South African context, the fact that the new national curriculum is designed to produce citizens who are critical thinkers and can work well with others in teams indicates the need to have teachers who have the relevant training for these national outcomes to be realized. This is the one of the major challenges facing the current providers of continuing professional development programmes post 1994.
Researchers like (Feddeker et al., 1999:5). Modiba (1996) Parker, (1996), Maistry (2006); Cross and Chisholm, (1990:51); Christie, (1992:37); National Policy for General Education Affairs Act (Act 76 of 1984), have noted that that the apartheid government used the education system and schools, other than white schools, as objects of neglect, indifference and discrimination. Teachers’ development was influenced largely by Fundamental Pedagogics, tenets of which sought to construct teachers who were simply practitioners.
As a researcher, I strongly believe the professional development of teachers within the current post- 1994 election period needs to be in line with the new National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development (NPFTED: 2007). This policy will, for the first time in the history of South African teaching, provide a regulated system of their professional development with teachers taking ownership of their personal development. With this policy in place, the Department of Education as the employer will now need to use a social-constructivist CPD framework that will directly address the imbalances of the past.
The new democratic dispensation now should produce citizens of a new South Africa who can work and develop together within the new democratic government. There is need for policy framework with an enquiry form of teacher development, providing teachers with opportunities to engage in discussions with peers about problems experienced in their professional lives. Teacher development in our country has a lot to do with the acquisition of knowledge and skills. But in order to produce teachers who are critical team workers, there is a great deal of improvement we need to attend to in terms of upgrading the level of professional development of a great percentage of our teaching corps. The issue of under- qualified teachers is addressed in one of the local papers, City Press, February 6, 2005, in an article
“Teachers plan to battle high dropout rate” based on research done by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in which Michael Crosser said: “In some cases learners felt they were not getting adequate education from under-qualified or unqualified teachers. They become de-motivated and end up leaving the school”.
According to the Norms and Standards for teacher Education, Training and Development: Department of Education (2000:127) teacher development programmes must move away from face-to-face contact which only focuses on transmission of knowledge and does not involve various forms of support like peer-discussion groups. The introduction of Curriculum 2005 and OBE as a curriculum policy will feature strongly in this research as the trained facilitators in this study were still struggling with its implementation and understanding.
2.4 HISTORY OF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH