Trialogue’s 2022 research into CSI spend in education showed that the spend on teacher education increased to 14% in 2022 (from 11% in 2021). This trend is anticipated to continue as funders focus on systemic levers of change in the education system. This article contains relevant acts and policies as well as local and international research to inform investment in teacher development.
Relevant acts and policies for teacher development
| Teacher professional standards for South Africa | The 2017 paper Teacher Professional Standards for South Africa: The road to better performance, development and accountability? by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) provides insights into the conditions under which TPS in South Africa might serve to raise school performance. It addressed three key deficiencies in the education system: many teachers are ill-prepared for teaching, are not accountable, and do not receive enough support and training to equip them as competent educators. |
| The National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa | This 2006 policy document for teacher education was designed to develop a teaching profession ready and able to meet the needs of a democratic South Africa in the 21st century. The aim of the policy was “to properly equip teachers to undertake their essential and demanding tasks, to enable them to continually enhance their professional competence and performance, and to raise the esteem in which they are held by the people of South Africa”. The first of its kind in South Africa, this policy document made it possible for South Africans to debate and contribute to issues central to teacher training and development. |
Teacher development research
| Teacher Development Communities of Practice | According to BRIDGE, the teacher is the main catalyst for developing confident and competent learners. A focus on teacher development, both pre-service and in-service, is essential for long-term impact on the system. The national Teacher Development Community of Practice encourages collaboration between schools, NGOs and other service providers to increase impact and reduce duplication of interventions supporting teacher development. |
| Teacher Development Research Review: Keys to Educator Success | This 2015 article explains how to get the best out of your teachers and improve student learning. It identifies a range of best practices found by researchers to be critical for ensuring educator growth and success. |
| Shifts in beliefs, knowledge and skills: teachers’ experiences of instructional rounds practice | Teachers’ beliefs may provide them with the resources necessary to maintain and improve their instructional practices, according to this 2017 PhD thesis. By collaborating with other teachers and gathering data from their instructional practice, teachers are in a better position to change their beliefs by understanding the roles that they, their learners and the content of their lessons play in their classrooms. |
| Opportunities and Challenges for Teacher Education Curriculum in South Africa | This 2008 book traces the micro-level responses of teacher educators at five universities experiencing the impact of the restructuring of teacher education curricula, which has radically changed the teacher education landscape. The book forms part of the Teacher Education in South Africa series, which documents a wide-ranging set of research projects on teacher education conducted by the Education, Science and Skills Development Research Programme within the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). |
| Does Content-Focused Teacher Professional Development Work? | In 2016, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Instituteof Education Sciences (IES) in the United States,published the results of findings from three IES studies regarding teacher PD. The studies examined the impact of the PD programmes on teachers’ content knowledge and instructional practice, as well as their students’ achievement. The findings showed that intensive content-focused PD improves teachers’ knowledge and some aspects of their practice but improving teachers’ knowledge or practice does not automatically translate into improvements in student achievement. |
| The Initial Teacher Education Research Project (ITERP) | In 2016, JET Education Services released its final report on the state of initial teacher education (ITE), including the development of student teachers, the early work experiences of new teacher graduates, new teacher recruitment and career choices, new teacher placement and reception in schools, and new teacher distribution. ITERP set out to examine the extent to which the ITE programmes offered by universities are adequately preparing teachers to teach in South African schools. |
| Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa 2011-2025 | This 2011 technical report by the Departments of Basic Education and Higher Education and Training was the culmination of a long process of stakeholder engagement regarding teacher development, which began at the Teacher Development Summit of 2009. The report gives an historical overview of teacher education provision, teacher demand, supply and utilisation, and the preparation and development of teachers by public higher education institutions in South Africa, as well as teachers’ development needs and support structures. |
| Teachers’ and HoDs’ Accountability on Curriculum Coverage: PILO theory of change | This Wits School of Education presentation explores how PILO’s theory of change sees teacher support and improvement in South Africa and internationally through the lens of ‘accountability’. PILO aims to develop internal reciprocal accountability at system and school level in order to make it self-sustaining. PILO’s theory of change is a description of the operational design of the JikaiMfundo campaign, an education intervention undertaken by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education in partnership with the Programme for Improving Learning Outcomes (PILO) and with the support of the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT). Information about the JikaiMfundo Campaign 2015-2017 can be found here. |
| Teacher Development Summit (29 June – 2 July 2009) | This summit brought stakeholders together to review teacher development at the instigation of teachers themselves, supported by the Department of Education, the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC), the South African Council for Educators (SACE) and the Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA). Participants agreed upon the need for a new, strengthened, integrated national plan for teacher development. |
| Annual performance plans | The Department of Basic Education Annual Performance Plan, 2018-2019 and The South African Council for Educators Annual Performance Plan 2018/19 both provide a situational analysis of education in South Africa, together with strategic objectives and annual targets. |
| Advancing Professional Teaching in South Africa: Lessons Learnt from Policy Frameworks That Have Regulated Teachers’ Work | This 2018 article analyses four frameworks used to regulate, monitor and evaluate the work of South African teachers over the past two decades. The authors posit that the ways in which the previous frameworks constrained teacher professionalism has implications for SACE’s Teacher Professional Standards for South Africa if it is to more successfully enhance teacher professionalism. |
| How does professional development improve teaching? | This 2016 article by a researcher in the United States reviews research on professional development (PD) programmes with an eye towards learning about how different approaches to PD foster learning. |
