An industry-sponsored, school-focused model for continuing professional development of technology teachers

Abstract

Traditionally a divide has existed between faculties of education at higher
education institutions (HEIs) and trade and industry, but the business sector is
increasingly buying into community development with corporate social investment,
especially regarding technology education. We report on a continuing
professional teacher development (CPTD) model, which entails trade and
industry sponsoring learning and teacher support material (LTSM) for technology
education in under-resourced schools, paying for LTSM through their corporate
social investment funds, and sponsoring CPTD of technology teachers where
they are trained to use LTSM more efficiently. Trade and industry, together with
HEIs and Departments of Education (DoE), could change the traditional concept
that CPTD is the responsibility of DoEs into a new model where the business
sector shares some of the responsibility for equipping teachers so that they can
provide quality education. We argue that custom-made and sponsored LTSM
and CPTD play an important role in the training and empowerment of technology
teachers.

Keywords: continuing professional development; learning and teacher support material; technology education

South African Journal of Education Vol. 27 (4) 2007: pp. 579-596