Personal and professional change: a South African case study

Abstract

This article analyses the change processes, both personal and professional, undergone by a disparate group of South African educators, within a reflective practice paradigm. The group was involved in a 2-year pilot project based at the Universities of Exeter and Cape Town. The article also examines the impact on the group's teachers of experiencing radically different models of education from those within which they had been raised and still worked. It discusses the outcomes in terms of professional development, motivation, materials production, curriculum innovation and pupil perceptions. The major contributory change factors – political, moral, attitudinal, cultural and professional – are identified and analysed, and further problems and issues raised.