Making In-service Professional Development Effective in a Rural Context

Abstract

Teachers’ in-service professional development is lifelong learning that is significantly crucial to the education system. Teachers’ entry knowledge and skills into the profession are inadequate to sustain the dynamic classroom practices; hence, the Department of Basic Education posits that regular in-service professional development of teachers influences the quality of education. This chapter explores the needs for rural teachers’ professional development, their difficulties, and how these needs are met towards maintaining quality teaching and learning. The theory of communities of practice is used as an underpinning framework. The theory explores in-service professional development for rural teachers to enhance rural learners’ performance. Teachers in rural schools face peculiar challenges in teaching and learning, which differ from those in urban schools. This necessitates the needs for rural teachers to be provided with regular in-service professional development programmes, which differ from the usual one-size-fits-all professional development activities. The chapter explains the significance of designing appropriate in-service professional development for rural teachers to cater for diverse rural classroom contexts. Several professional development models have been explored to recommend effective in-service professional development models.