Therefore, the focus of professional development efforts within higher education institutions is still on the academic staff (Fielden 1998:7). This research will be conducted at North-West University, Mafikeng Campus and will attempt to identify reasons why academic staff in the Faculty of Education show apathy towards professional development programs.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In some cases, academics enroll in professional development programs but do not attend them, sometimes without any excuse. In addition, Bos (2011:1) agrees that the following are among the causes for academic staff's apathy towards professional development programmes.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The strategies and activities of professional development programs employed by the University; (by means of a questionnaire and literature study). The rationale for participating in professional development programs; (by means of a questionnaire and literature study).
OVERVIEW OF DISSERTATION
CHAPTER TWO
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW OF THE TARGET UNIVERSITY
- Governance and Administration of the North-West University
- The Council
- The Senate
The Senate, as an administrative body, is responsible for the academic wing of the university. The Senate is charged with awarding degrees and diplomas, evaluating the quality of students and staff, and determining the suitability of programs.
SOUTH AFRICAN LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK INFORMING HIGHER EDUCATION REGARDING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- The Skills Development Act, No. 97 of 1998
- The Skills Development Levies Act, No. 9 of 1999
9 of 1999 concerns the financing of new policies and programs developed to increase investment in skills development. The anticipated revenue from the skills development levy is allocated to the national priority areas that are defined by the National Skills Development Strategy 2005-2010.
LEARNING ORGANISATION
97 of 1998, provides an institutional framework for developing and improving the skills of the South African workforce, improving workers' quality of life, workplace productivity and employers' competitiveness. With regard to higher education, this policy requires all higher education institutions to submit their staff skills development plans to improve skills.
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
A learning organization does not rely on passive or ad hoc processes, but instead actively promotes, facilitates and rewards collective learning. In other words, a learning organization is considered a culture of continuous integration of performance and learning (Gumus et al. 2001:44).
WHY PEOPLE RESIST CHANGE?
Change in organisations may be continuous and incremental or rapid and discontinuous with shifts from the patterns of the past. The scale of change may range from fine-tuning through incremental or modular adjustment to wide scale corporate transformation (Smith 2011:115).
BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMICS IN UNIVERSITIES Professional development of academics has been shown to be instrumental in University's
The University of Alberta survey also identified the following six major barriers to participating in professional development activities;. Lack of professional development assessment has also been identified as a major barrier to successful programs in universities.
MODELS FOR UNDERSTANDING AND APPROACHING CHANGE
- Doppelt's (2003) "wheel of change" model
- Commonalities and differences — Kotter and Doppelt
After challenging and disrupting business-as-usual thinking, rearrange the parts of the current system. Create a vision of the ideal future and engage people in the organization with the overall change agenda and with actions to achieve the change;.
ORGANISATIONAL APATHY
- Organisational Apathy defined
- Dealing with Apathy
- Overcoming member Apathy
- Possible reasons for apathy
- Possible solutions to apathy
- Steps to stop Apathy before it starts
It often reflects grassroots frustration or a sense of lack of control over their lives. Consultation: Successful leaders are team players who consult with all members of the organization, inventory individual strengths, and consider what is important to the entire group.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Professional development defined
For example, Soi Lang (2004:41) points out that professional development programs in universities are an attempt to improve the efficiency of higher education. For this study, the researcher has adopted a definition of professional development that is based on the Getzels-Guba (1957) model.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL THEORY
Leadership culture — a good leader takes on the paternal role of ensuring professional development and employee engagement. It helps facilitate understanding of the rationale or purpose, process and outcomes of professional development in higher education.
CHALLENGES TO ACADEMICS' WORKING PATTERNS
Universities are increasingly basing their assessment of research quality on the ability of researchers to attract funding, but also on the volume of research conducted and published.
RATIONALE FOR STAFF DEVELOPMENT
Providing planned learning necessary for employees to perform at the skill level required in their current and future positions or assignments;. In their report, they made a strong case for a higher level of professional development and argued that it. This is usually achieved by ensuring that the leadership skills and philosophy of the organization are incorporated into training and development experiences.
OUTCOMES OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Increased Human Potential
- Institutional / Organisational Development
- Leadership Development
Leadership development in many higher education institutions has taken the form of identifying pools of underrepresented groups in the organization so that they can participate in special leadership development projects.
LEVELS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Individual
- Group or program
- Department
- Division
- Professional associations
This level includes the efforts of local, regional and national professional bodies to provide members with professional development opportunities.
FORMS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Induction/orientation
- In - service Training Opportunities
Some of the forms of professional development activities that are common at the local level reviewed below are; In general, the professional development of University academics begins at the point of entry into the University system by an individual. Within in-service training, the most common form of professional development used by Universities is training seminars (Williams, 1982:60).
ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development programs open to academic staff at different levels of career development vary, so that the academic in retirement has gone through a series of programs with different foci and different objectives. This will be achieved formally, non-formally or through professional development forms or approaches such as induction, in-service education, internal and external courses and visits. Reinforcement of previous participation in professional development activities by significant others (eg employers, other professionals) is a strong motivator for continued development and educational activities (Gumus et al. 2001:47).
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
The researcher found from the literature that possible reasons for apathy towards professional development could be that people do not feel that their needs coincide with their organization's mission/purpose statement; people have conflicting commitments and as a result often cannot spend as much time and energy as the organization requires; and that people believe they do not have a significant role in the processes that run their organization.
CHAPTER THREE
INTRODUCTION
RESEARCH DESIGN
Gay points out that descriptive research involves collecting data to answer questions pertaining to the current status of the research topic. Singleton (1999:91) adds that descriptive research attempts to describe the distribution within a specific population of certain characteristics, attitudes or experiences using simple forms of analysis.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .1 Qualitative research
- Quantitative research
For this study, the research design used was descriptive in nature, using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques to collect and analyze data. Gall, Gall and Borg explain that quantitative research is a type of investigation that measures the characteristics of a sample of a population on pre-specified variables. This view is supported by Huysamen (2001:34) and Leedy and Ormond who point out that quantitative research is related to research that manipulates and controls variables.
DATA GATHERING
- Questionnaire
- Development of questionnaire
- Design of questionnaire
- Administration of questionnaire
- Documentary sources
- Literature review
To meet these criteria, a questionnaire was developed whose features were guided by the purpose of the study and the review of related literature. The researcher received permission from the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Education at NWU-Mafikeng Campus to conduct the study (see Appendix A). After approval, a list of all academics who fit the description of the study was obtained from the secretary of the Dean of the Faculty of Education.
PILOT STUDY
DATA ANALYSIS
RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY
- Reliability
- Validity
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
- The ethics of data collection and analysis
- The ethics of treatment of participants
- The responsibility to the institution
This study respected the right to privacy of participants by protecting their personal information and by keeping the respondent's identity anonymous. The nature of the study was such that the institution would not suffer as the recommendations from the study will facilitate a more effective professional development action plan at North-West University, which in turn will end the apathy towards professional development programs. The researcher has adhered to the code of ethics for conducting research, as set out in the guidelines of the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education of North-West University.
SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
The main aim of this study is to identify the reasons for apathy among academic staff in the Faculty of Education of the NWU, Mafikeng Campus in relation to formal professional development programs offered by the NWU. Respondents are employees in the Faculty of Education of the North-West University, Mafikeng Campus. The results are in the form of descriptive statistics and are presented in frequency tables and figures.
RETURN RATE
ANALYSIS OF RESULTS .1 Demographic analysis
The majority of male academics fall into the age category (46 – 55 years), while the female academics fall into the age category 56 – 65 years.
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS REGARDING OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The professional development programs of this university are aimed at meeting the needs of the individual. The role of the university in the implementation of academic professional development is clear to me. This university's professional development programs are designed to meet the needs of the institution".
SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTER
CHAPTER FIVE
- INTRODUCTION
- FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
- Objective 1: To determine the strategies and activities of professional development programmes
- Objective 2: To determine the rationale for professional development
- Objective 3: To determine the perception of professional development programmes
- Objective 4: To determine the outcomes or effectiveness of professional development
- Objective 5: To determine factors that are likely to promote professional development initiatives
- Objective 6: To determine factors that are likely to impede professional development initiatives
- RECOMMENDATIONS
- CONCLUSION
In other words, the majority of respondents believe that their individual needs are not relevant to the institute's initiatives for professional development. In other words, academics are not perceived as part of the professional development decision-making process. The data show that the majority of academics see “the collaborative relationship between university academics as a factor that could promote professional development at the university.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The Teaching Staff of Nigerian Independent Schools Perception of a South African Professional Development Workshop. I Matthews Matiase Makunye, lecturer at the Faculty of Education of North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, kindly request permission to conduct research in the faculty. The title of my research is "Reasons for academic staff apathy towards formal professional development programs at North-West University, Mafikeng Campus".
APPENDIX B: Questionnaire participation North-West University
APPENDIX C SECTION A
QUESTIONNAIRE
REASONS FOR ACADEMICS' APATHY TOWARDS FORMAL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES AT NORTH-WEST UNIVERSITY, MAFIKENG
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Please mark the appropriate block with X
SECTION B
Strategies and activities for implementation
Rationale for professional development
Perceptions of professional development programmes
Outcomes / effectiveness of professional development efforts
Factors likely to promote professional development initiatives
Factors likely to impede professional development initiatives
Additional Information
The roles of the University in the implementation of academic professional development are clear to me. The professional development initiatives of this University aim to address the requirements of the institution. Lack of flexibility by the University for academics to choose their own professional development programmes.
Reasons for Academic Staff's Apathy towards formal Professional Development Programmes at North-West University, Mafikeng
Campus
Makunye Matiase Matthews
Master of Business Administration
