Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools

Attempts to address global pressure to achieve Education for All have been hampered by two fundamental challenges in developing countries, namely an acute shortage of teachers and large rural populations in these countries. In addition there is a trend for qualified competent teachers to shun workin...

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Main Author: Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Mercy College 2016-11-01
Series:Global Education Review
Subjects:
Online Access:http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/271/226
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author Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
author_facet Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
author_sort Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
collection DOAJ
description Attempts to address global pressure to achieve Education for All have been hampered by two fundamental challenges in developing countries, namely an acute shortage of teachers and large rural populations in these countries. In addition there is a trend for qualified competent teachers to shun working in rural settings. While recruitment of professionally unqualified graduate teachers into the teaching profession has become internationally acclaimed to address in particular rural school postings and Education for All commitments, there remain outstanding questions regarding how such teachers professionally learn and grow in these rural contexts outside the Teacher Education Institution lecture room. An understanding of how they develop professionally is crucial. The study explored professional development experiences of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural secondary schools. A qualitative design was adopted and three-interview series complimented by photo elicitations were employed to explore the teachers’ professional development experiences. Data were transcribed and manually analysed inductively utilizing open coding. Findings suggest that professional development experiences for these teachers occurred in four sites: school structures, wider professional sites, planned and unplanned gatherings, and the classroom. Drawing on concepts around professional development to describe, analyse and understand data, I illustrate that professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural secondary schools experience professional development outside Teacher Education Institutions in interaction, through domains of formality and experience: non formal, informal and experiential.
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spelling doaj.art-ca146c05e1c646a28f2e58731e0dc5de2022-12-21T22:24:36ZengMercy CollegeGlobal Education Review2325-663X2016-11-013484106Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schoolsTabitha Grace Mukeredzi0Durban University of Technology, South AfricaAttempts to address global pressure to achieve Education for All have been hampered by two fundamental challenges in developing countries, namely an acute shortage of teachers and large rural populations in these countries. In addition there is a trend for qualified competent teachers to shun working in rural settings. While recruitment of professionally unqualified graduate teachers into the teaching profession has become internationally acclaimed to address in particular rural school postings and Education for All commitments, there remain outstanding questions regarding how such teachers professionally learn and grow in these rural contexts outside the Teacher Education Institution lecture room. An understanding of how they develop professionally is crucial. The study explored professional development experiences of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural secondary schools. A qualitative design was adopted and three-interview series complimented by photo elicitations were employed to explore the teachers’ professional development experiences. Data were transcribed and manually analysed inductively utilizing open coding. Findings suggest that professional development experiences for these teachers occurred in four sites: school structures, wider professional sites, planned and unplanned gatherings, and the classroom. Drawing on concepts around professional development to describe, analyse and understand data, I illustrate that professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural secondary schools experience professional development outside Teacher Education Institutions in interaction, through domains of formality and experience: non formal, informal and experiential.http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/271/226Rural educationunqualified teachersprofessional developmentexperiential learningEducation for All
spellingShingle Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
Global Education Review
Rural education
unqualified teachers
professional development
experiential learning
Education for All
title Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
title_full Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
title_fullStr Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
title_full_unstemmed Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
title_short Teacher professional development outside the lecture room: Voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural Zimbabwe secondary schools
title_sort teacher professional development outside the lecture room voices of professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural zimbabwe secondary schools
topic Rural education
unqualified teachers
professional development
experiential learning
Education for All
url http://ger.mercy.edu/index.php/ger/article/view/271/226
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