A philosophical analysis of continuing professional development of teachers in Namibian schools

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT : This study is fundamentally ontologically, epistemologically, and methodologically aphilosophical research. It is grounded in the philosophy of education perspective, because it isaimed at the analysis of the concept of continuing professional development (CPD) of teachersin Namibian schools. The programme of CPD for teachers at schools may not reach its intendedgoal of achieving quality education in Namibia, if the concept of CPD is not well perceived bythe implementers at school level, who for this study in particular, are school principals.Motivated by my lived experience, the study is guided by the critical theory framework, withits unique emphasis markedly on emancipation, different to many paradigms within the socialsciences. I employed a conceptual analysis as the main research activity to deal with data whileanalysing the concept of CPD for teachers. Conceptual analysis is admired for its ability tounfold what is not clear about the concept while simultaneously providing clarity. With aconceptual analysis, concepts become understandable in relation to other concepts. The studyemploys document analyses and semi-structured interviews to collect data. The national policy(Vision 2030) and the educational policy (Toward Education for All, and Education andTraining Sector Improvement Programme) documents were analysed in order to have theirpronunciations on how the concept CPD of teachers in Namibian schools considered andincluded. A constant comparative method was adopted for data analysis. The concept of CPDwith all its diverse notions has been noted as articulated in all policy documents analysed as inservice training, human resource development, lifelong learning, and professional development.These concepts correlate with the interchangeable concepts to the concept of professionaldevelopment discussed in literature that the researcher reviewed. The concept of CPD forteachers was perceived reasonably well by the school principals who participated in this studyas respondents during interview sessions. The findings of this study show that the programmeof CPD for teachers in Namibian schools is happening at schools. Teachers are engaged in avariety of activities for their professional development.The contextual factors such as time and school culture emerged as hindrances to the effectiveimplementation of the programme of CPD at school level. The workload of teachers, too,imposes burdens on the implementation of the CPD programme. Schools need to adoptsupportive, responsive and accommodative school cultures to ensure teachers' professionallearning in a collaborative context. School time needs to be rescheduled to accommodate theteachers' professional development interventions.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University