Before my most recent educational adventure to Senegal, my colleagues and I were asked to formulate a guiding question that we hoped to answer by the end of our international field experience. 2015-2016 marked the first year that the State Department offered Teachers for Global Classrooms Fellowships to elementary school teachers, and we made up a very small minority of the 85-odd TGC Fellows. Jessi Parra--an awesome elementary teacher in her own right--and I were paired together. While we initially hoped to leverage that into a feasible research question about elementary education in Senegal, we quickly realized that our task would be monumental since we'd been slated to visit middle and high schools while abroad.
We had plenty of other ideas and questions, but the one that struck us as most intriguing related to teacher preparation and professional development. Before you roll your eyes at the mere mention of PD, understand that Jessi and I work in two of the largest school systems in the country; systems that are often looked to as much for what is innovative as for what ails all schools. And when Jessi and I learned that teacher professional development hinged almost entirely upon each individual educator's desire to better him/herself, well, we found ourselves with a compelling research question, indeed: Broadly speaking, what are the ultimate aims of professional development in Senegal, and how are they met?
We broke this question down at several levels, but we examined four areas in particular:
1. What, if any, are the teacher/department/school requirements around professional development?
The bottom line here is professional development requirements do not exist for teachers in Senegal. Teachers and departments—even schools—might encourage colleagues and staff members to attend PD, but unless the teachers possesses some degree of motivation for self-improvement, they can go their entire careers without any form of focused growth and progress beyond what they learned while in university. Fortunately, Jessi and I met many dedicated, caring professionals who took every opportunity to better themselves and their schools.
2. Around what professional development does exist, what percentages are focused on student outcomes, on teacher growth/improvement, and on school-wide progress?
This question had particular fascination for me because I grew up hearing professional development referred to as “Death by Meetings,” and truthfully, that isn’t always far off. Staff developers need to work diligently to create meaningful enrichment for all members of the school community, and that is no easy task. In Senegal, the professional development took on a very personal tone. Teachers identified areas that needed improvement and took it upon themselves to seek help, to devise solutions to problems, and to support their peers. The palpable sense of commitment and urgency led Jessi and me to believe that perhaps “Death by Meetings” is more a United States phenomenon.
3. How do teachers feel professional development they have received impacts their instruction and practice?
In most parts of the United States, professional development is a requirement, good, bad, or ugly. Given that teachers in Senegal either opt to attend professional development or not, impact is pretty straightforward. Those teachers who attend PD are more consistently invested in their craft, they reach out to colleagues to both offer and receive support, and they remain in the field longer than their peers who defer any development.
4. What would teachers do to improve professional development, and what changes—if any—would they make to the aims of professional development in the Senegalese education system?
As in the United States, teachers in Senegal who are passionate about what they do actively seek out ways to become better. We did not meet any teachers abroad who wanted “less” professional development, but this is presumably because it is not required. This question still generated a spectrum of responses, but most unfailingly agreed that even if the system for teacher professional development didn’t change in Senegal, they would continue planning and implementing their own; according to one teacher, “The mission (of education) is too important to leave to chance.”
We had plenty of other ideas and questions, but the one that struck us as most intriguing related to teacher preparation and professional development. Before you roll your eyes at the mere mention of PD, understand that Jessi and I work in two of the largest school systems in the country; systems that are often looked to as much for what is innovative as for what ails all schools. And when Jessi and I learned that teacher professional development hinged almost entirely upon each individual educator's desire to better him/herself, well, we found ourselves with a compelling research question, indeed: Broadly speaking, what are the ultimate aims of professional development in Senegal, and how are they met?
We broke this question down at several levels, but we examined four areas in particular:
- What, if any, are the teacher/department/school requirements around professional development?
- Around what professional development does exist, what percentages are focused on student outcomes, on teacher growth/improvement, and on school-wide progress?
- How do teachers feel professional development they have received impacts their instruction and practice?
- What would teachers do to improve professional development, and what changes—if any—would they make to the aims of professional development in the Senegalese education system?
1. What, if any, are the teacher/department/school requirements around professional development?
The bottom line here is professional development requirements do not exist for teachers in Senegal. Teachers and departments—even schools—might encourage colleagues and staff members to attend PD, but unless the teachers possesses some degree of motivation for self-improvement, they can go their entire careers without any form of focused growth and progress beyond what they learned while in university. Fortunately, Jessi and I met many dedicated, caring professionals who took every opportunity to better themselves and their schools.
2. Around what professional development does exist, what percentages are focused on student outcomes, on teacher growth/improvement, and on school-wide progress?
This question had particular fascination for me because I grew up hearing professional development referred to as “Death by Meetings,” and truthfully, that isn’t always far off. Staff developers need to work diligently to create meaningful enrichment for all members of the school community, and that is no easy task. In Senegal, the professional development took on a very personal tone. Teachers identified areas that needed improvement and took it upon themselves to seek help, to devise solutions to problems, and to support their peers. The palpable sense of commitment and urgency led Jessi and me to believe that perhaps “Death by Meetings” is more a United States phenomenon.
3. How do teachers feel professional development they have received impacts their instruction and practice?
In most parts of the United States, professional development is a requirement, good, bad, or ugly. Given that teachers in Senegal either opt to attend professional development or not, impact is pretty straightforward. Those teachers who attend PD are more consistently invested in their craft, they reach out to colleagues to both offer and receive support, and they remain in the field longer than their peers who defer any development.
4. What would teachers do to improve professional development, and what changes—if any—would they make to the aims of professional development in the Senegalese education system?
As in the United States, teachers in Senegal who are passionate about what they do actively seek out ways to become better. We did not meet any teachers abroad who wanted “less” professional development, but this is presumably because it is not required. This question still generated a spectrum of responses, but most unfailingly agreed that even if the system for teacher professional development didn’t change in Senegal, they would continue planning and implementing their own; according to one teacher, “The mission (of education) is too important to leave to chance.”
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