How Effective is In-service Training for Teachers in Rural School Contexts?

This research is aimed at determining if Grade Nine teachers benefited from the training in Curriculum 2005 that was organized by the Department of Education, and whether the training contributed to meeting the intellectual and professional challenges facing South Africans in the 21st century.

The author collects and analyzes qualitative data from three Grade Nine teachers from three rural schools in the Pietermaritzburg region, South Africa. The teachers who had been trained felt that:

• They had not been trained adequately in their respective learning areas, and therefore, did not understand the new procedures;
• Paperwork involved in the implementation of the new procedures had increased their work unnecessarily;
• Training failed to prepare them for Curriculum 2005;
• Cascading of information resulted in its misinterpretation;
• Trainers lacked confidence, knowledge and understanding of the management of the training process.