South African school principals' perspectives on continuing professional teacher development for knowledge economy

Abstract

Continuing professional teacher development is a global phenomenon and the focus of all education departments. However, with its dynamic education system, South Africa faces challenges implementing successful teacher development programmes. The national curriculum has changed several times in the democratic era, and teacher development has been affected. The role of school principals in national teacher development policies has also been ever-changing. In the previous Education Labour Relations Council collective agreement, the Integrated Quality Management System [IQMS], principals played a smaller role because the responsibility of staff development fell on the chairperson of the staff development team, who was not necessarily the principal of the school. The recent Collective Agreement, the Quality Management System [QMS], has restored the responsibility to the principal. Therefore, this study examined how South African school principals connect continuing professional teacher development to the knowledge economy. The researcher believes that school principals are responsible for implementing teacher development. The study adopted a qualitative research approach to collect data through semi-structured interviews. A qualitative case study design was used, and the sample comprised 10 school principals. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected empirical data. The findings from the data analysis underscore the significant challenges that South African school principals encounter when attempting to link continuing professional teacher development to the knowledge economy. These challenges, as the study reveals, must be effectively addressed. In response, the study proposes a model for continuing professional teacher development that can facilitate this connection and enhance the economic value of teaching staff. KEYWORDS: school leadership, continuing professional teacher development, knowledge economy, school context, social learning theory