The Journey to Becoming Teaching Professionals in Rural South Africa and Zimbabwe.

There seems to be consensus on what constitutes effective professional development although the gap between rhetoric and practice remains wide. Knowing what professional development looks like is insufficient, what is critical is to get it engrained in school structures. The study explored professional development practices of twelve professionally unqualified practicing teachers in rural South Africa and Zimbabwe secondary schools. Drawing on models of professional development, analysis of qualitative interview data suggests that classroom teaching practice, in-school meetings and school-to-school subject cluster and association meetings are effective for teacher professional growth. The paper illustrates that if teacher professional development is to be supported in rural schools, systemic interventions should ensure that in-school support is built into structures and cultures to continuously and purposefully support and guide professionally unqualified practicing teachers to increase the likelihood of their professional development.