Institutionalising teacher clusters in South Africa: dilemmas and contradictions
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Date
2012
Authors
Jita, Loyiso C.
Mokhele, Matseliso L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Education, University of the Free State
Abstract
Increasingly, teacher clusters are being used as a substitute for the more traditional approaches to the
professional development of teachers. With this goal in mind, many provincial education departments in
South Africa have sought to institutionalise and encourage the formation of teacher clusters as vehicles for
the continuing professional development of teachers. What are the challenges of this institutionalisation
and to what extent has it served teachers in their quest to learn from and with each other in clusters? In
this article, we use a qualitative case study approach to examine the dilemmas of the institutionalisation
of teacher clusters in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. Using mostly interview data with all the
key central office administrators responsible for science and mathematics in the province, and a sample of
the participating cluster (teacher) leaders and observations of their cluster activities, we discuss how the
institutionalisation processes may have led to rather undesirable outcomes. We examine the way in which
institutionalisation may have resulted in a reduction of the “opportunities to learn” for the participating
teachers. We argue that, while the intentions of the policymakers to provide support and recognition for
the teacher clusters were noble and progressive, the consequences of their intervention were somewhat
negative and tended to bureaucratise clusters, thereby alienating teachers from these traditionally bottomup
structures of professional development. We conclude the article by exploring what the possibilities are
for teachers reclaiming the spaces created by the teacher cluster “movement” in South Africa.
Description
Keywords
Teacher clusters, Teacher networks, Professional development, Collaboration, South Africa
Citation
Jita, L. C., & Mokhele, M. L. (2012). Institutionalising teacher clusters in South Africa: dilemmas and contradictions. Perspectives in Education, 30(2), 1-11