Crossing the Bridge: From Professional Development to Early Childhood Classroom Practice in Tanzania

Abstract

Professional development is key to helping teachers create engaging and relevant classroom experiences, especially in early childhood education where young children are beginning to build knowledge, skills, and attitudes for life. This qualitative study used a constructivist theoretical framework to understand early childhood practitioners’ perceptions of professional development for classroom practice in two Tanzanian preschools, pseudonyms Achievement School and Empowerment School. While multiple data collection strategies were used, only practitioners’ interview responses were analyzed for the purpose of this dissertation. Findings indicated that practitioners at both schools had different perceptions of professional development. One set of practitioners viewed professional development as an engaging and useful learning experience while the other set viewed it as somewhat useful but not always relevant to their classroom practices. Findings are reflected through the themes: 1) Practitioners’ perceptions and use of professional development in classrooms, 2) Processes and content of professional development, and 3) Relevance of professional development to classroom practice. The conclusion highlighted that practitioners’ perceptions of professional development guide their actions, emphasizing that in order to ensure practitioners’ commitment to professional development and to enable them to use it for classroom practice, it is crucial that a) professional development meets their needs, b) it is relevant to their classroom practices, c) practitioners are engaged in planning and implementing the content, d) administrators are supportive of practitioners’ initiatives, and e) it is held at locations convenient to the practitioners.