Teacher development: an opportunity for cross-cultural co-operation

Abstract

This paper describes the work of PETRA (Primary English Teaching in Rural Areas), an aid-funded ELT project which was set up to improve the standards of English language teaching in black primary schools in rural areas in South Africa. The paper focuses on the first phase of the project, during which teachers attended an in-service training course leading to an externally-validated certificate. The structure and assesment procedures of the course are described, and the outcome of the course is assessed with reference to the report, of the external evaluators appointed by the funding agency. The article concludes by highlighting a number of lessons learnt from the in-service training course, notably the importance of well-defined tasks and the value of personal relationships, and suggests that these could be applied to any similar cross-cultural teacher development project.