Paste y6.2: Barriers to participation in CPD
This study identifies some barriers to participation in CPD. The following are the barriers respondents mentioned during the semi-structured interviews.
6.2.1: Barrier (1) – lack of support from the workplace
Based on the data analysis, it appears that the respondents were suffering from the lack of workplace support regarding CPD. They did not claim that their workplace underestimates the importance of CPD; however, they complained that their workplace does not provide them with ample support to participate in CPD. For example, one participant stated: “Personally, I am not satisfied with my employer’s attitude towards CPD. There is no plan for such a thing! There are some appreciated efforts from my department administration to provide local CPD workshops. However, there is no official plan.” Thus, the teachers considered the lack of workplace support as a major barrier to participation in CPD.
In addition, the participants explained that they are not provided with financial support from their workplace to participate in CPD, and they are not reimbursed if they pay from their own expenses. They further announced that the lack of support from the workplace demotivates them from attending. The following excerpt from the interviews illustrates this view: “In my opinion, it depends a lot on the type of institute where teachers work. …. Staff at colleges and schools seem to have to justify wanting to attend conferences and training days which is prohibitive and demotivating, not to mention teachers not being able to recover costs for attending”.
6.2.2: Barrier (2) – lack of recognition of teachers’ needs
All the participants in this study except one stated that if the program does not consider their needs, they would never think of attending. Clarifying their view, one of the target teachers stated: “It is as simple as this, if a program doesn’t meet or address my professional development needs, why would I be bothered to attend it? It is crucial to me that the programs I attend successfully meet my needs which usually motivates me as a person”. Furthermore, based on the interviewed teachers’ responses, it is clear that if the CPD program does not meet their needs, they feel very demotivated and have a negative impression that might influence their future participation. To support this view, one of the teachers announced: “If the programme is not related to my needs, then it is like talking to a brick wall”.
In fact, teachers should not be blamed if they resist attending CPD if the program does not help them develop new practices (Knight, 2008). Patterson et al. (2008) and Davenport (2005) also emphasized the importance of consulting teachers about their needs and working to meet them by conducting an appropriate CPD program to avoid having that as a barrier to participation in CPD. Clearly, teachers will not resist a program they feel they need: “It is of high importance for me that my professional needs are met to be motivated to attend,” one of the participants in this study insisted.
For instance, Opertti (2006) declared that teachers usually abandon participating in CPD and feel disappointed if their expectations and needs are not fully met. Indeed, most teachers do not “tolerate” CPDs that “don’t work” with their learners and their needs (Mewborn & Huberty, 2004, p.6) because they think that fulfilling their interests is a basic element in motivating them to attend a CPD programme. In other words, teachers become demotivated when the CPD program is imposed on them by administration or policy makers (Speck & Knipe, 2001).
In addition, Opertti (2006) argued that teachers consider meeting their needs and providing inspiration an important right that they should be provided with, so they reject CPD if their needs are not met.
6.2.3: Barrier (3) – heavy workload
Complaining of the heavy workload, and stating it as a major barrier to getting involved in CPD, one of the interviewed teachers explained that “it will very helpful for them if they are given less academic load in order to enable them join any opportunity to develop professionally.” They considered the workload as an impediment to their participation in CPD. In addition, one of them announced, “The offered professional development training should not add an extra burden to the teacher in terms of the workload.” Explaining the critical situation regarding the workload teachers suffer, one informant contended, “Because we have very busy timetables, we don’t have the time to join any course away from my workplace, so I need to get some time off in order to have the motivation to develop professionally”.
In a similar study by Dowswell et al. (1998) researching a similar topic, but related to nurses, “time” was reported as a barrier to participation in CPD. In this study, the same result was obtained in the context of higher educational institutions. In fact, time and workload were identified as a common barrier with most of the participants in this study.
Thus, the workload situation, as the teachers explained, affects their motivation to participate in CPD programs. Participants’ experience correlates with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory . According to Maslow (1954); as discussed earlier, people tend not to ask for the upper level needs before fulfilling the lower level ones. For instance, a teacher overwhelmed with a heavy workload will not pay attention to the additional burden of CPD. Based on the application of this theory, it can be argued that teachers whose needs are not met at work and who think that the CPD programme will not fulfil their needs will not function efficiently in their job and will not be willing to participate in CPD.
6.2.4 Barrier (4) – transportation and accommodation
One of the barriers to the participation in CPD identified by this study is transportation and accommodation. However, this barrier was not a common barrier among the participants of the study. Out of the twenty participants, only three teachers indicated difficulties in transportation and accommodation when attending CPD programmes. One teacher commented, “Other times when they were set outside the town or even the country I’m living in, I couldn’t make it because of the trouble of commuting (since I don’t drive) or travelling.” Complaining about the poor quality of transportation, one interviewed teacher stated, “Sometimes, facilities like transport are not adequate. “
Thus, it can be very challenging for teachers to participate in a CPD programme that is conducted away from their workplace unless they have a means of transportation. This can lead to a waste of their precious time and effort (Gray, 2005). Similarly, encountering difficulties in finding appropriate accommodation when attending a CPD programme would exacerbate the situation and hinder the progress of CPD. Travel and accommodation problems have also been noticed in Tanzania where many teachers commute long distances from home to school resulting in wasting their time, money, and effort and consequently making it difficult for them to participate in any CPD programmes (Bennell and Mukyanuzi 2005).
7- Conclusion and Recommendations
This research paper discusses teachers’ perceptions of the motivators and barriers to the participation in CPD and provides some suggestions to facilitate their participation . It has been found that the motivators to the participation in CPD are highly qualified presenters, well-prepared content, recognising teachers’ needs , appropriate support from the workplace, valid certificate of participation, social interaction, and practical exposure . On the other hand, the barriers to participation in CPD as found from this study are heavy workload, problems with accommodation and transportation, lack of recognition of teachers’ needs, and lack of support from the workplace.
As per this study, and based on literature and data, there are some suggestions to enhance teachers’ participation in CPD. One of the suggestions, in order to increase the quality of the CPD programmes and make them more effective, higher educational institutions and other providers of CPD should carefully organize a well- structured mechanism for conducting CPD sessions by making a clear criteria for the quality of sessions approving high quality ones and discarding the others that might not meet the requirements of quality in terms of the trainers presenting , the equipment used and the content delivered . In other words, to be more effective, CPD must be relevant and appropriate to the teachers and students’ demands since the target is improving the teaching learning process. To achieve this aim, policy makers should investigate teachers’ needs and the areas and skills they require more training and guidance on in order to choose the most appropriate programmes to serve their demands (Desimone et al., 2006:206).
In addition, teachers should be supported by their work place to attend CPD programmes. They should be supported financially to cover the expenses of the CPD programmes if it is not out of charge . They should also be provided with comfortable transportation and appropriate accommodation if the programme is outside the place of work . Being eligible to claim for a fully paid leave to attend a CPD programme is very recommended, too. Moreover, the work of place should reduce teachers’ workload to provide them with adequate time and more opportunities to take a more effective role in CPD. The work of place may make it clear to the teachers that reducing their workload is to encourage them to participate in CPD because this might make them more willing to participate in CPD in return to their work of place rewarding them with less workload. Providers of CPD are also recommended to provide participating teachers with valid certificates of participation as a reward for their effort to attending CPD.
Furthermore, based on this study’s findings, administrators and policy makers should take into consideration providing their employees with a motivational working environment that support them to thrive on their career effectively and waiving the disappointing circumstance from their way to success. Another recommendation, , to fulfil teachers’ request to enjoy a more practical and social interaction during CPD , policy makers should “abandon outmoded approaches to staff development and invest in these more ‘practice-based’ approaches to professional learning for teachers”(Mundry, 2005:14). Also, “ professional development programmes should have an appropriate level of challenge and support , provide activities demonstrating new ways to teach and learn, build internal capacity , use a team approach, provide time for reflection and evaluate the effectiveness and impact of its activities” (Lee , 2005:47). In fact, professional development should move from simply attending CPD different programs on particular days dealing with particular contents and issues , presented by particular trainers and imposed by policy makers on teachers to an open lifelong learning and training where teachers themselves decide on the content and the time of the CPD programmes (Fraser et al.,2007).
To conclude, other researchers are recommended to explore new ways for motivating teachers to participate in continuing professional development (CPD) and to investigate more barriers to contribute to this study and to support educational institutions and CPD providers to make concrete plans to develop the field of CPD and the whole educational system accordingly. Intervention from policy makers is highly needed, as well, to improve CPD activities and create positive attitude to them among teachers for the benefit of the whole educational system.
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