Abstract
Educational change is a complex endeavour which has been researched for many years. Changing teaching practice is equally complex but has not been researched to the same extent. Within the South African context, the complexity of changing teaching practice is evident in the unsuccessful attempts to change teachers’ practice.
In addition to the difficulties related to changing South African teachers’ practice, there are challenges concerning school-leaving learners due to the increasing demands of the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, and the high unemployment rate in South Africa. Due to the necessity to equip learners with the necessary skills to either find employment, further their education, or be entrepreneurs, the DBE-E3 teacher development programme aims to change teachers’ practice and simultaneously provide learners with the necessary skills to thrive after completing their schooling.
This was an instrumental case study; the subject was an instantiation of the DBE-E3 teacher development programme; and the object was the constellation of key factors that support or inhibit change in teaching practice. The study aimed to explore what key factors support and inhibit change in teaching practice? I utilised qualitative data generation methods, namely, semi-structured interviews, observations, WhatsApp discussions, and document analysis. The analysis of the data comprised both inductive and deductive analysis, and the use of the constant comparative method.
I identified three main themes: (1) training that is well-planned and executed, and that aligns with the needs of the teachers and the education system, is likely to support teachers in changing their practice, (2) school-related factors contribute to teachers’ lived reality of whether they are supported or inhibited in relation to changing their practice, and (3) teachers’ susceptibility to change is influenced by their environment and their attitude regarding the proposed change.
The thematic pattern of this study, which serves as the overarching finding of the study has two parts. The first part which stems from the three themes that I have identified, that the key factors that support and inhibit change in teachers’ teaching practice are: (1) the extent to which the proposed change aligns with teachers' professional needs; and (2)...