Secondary School Teachers’ Perception of “Teacher Professional Development”: A Case Study of Teachers from Five Districts of Uganda.

Teacher professional development (TPD) is important in keeping teachers abreast with changes that characterise the 21st century schools. However, TPD will only be valuable if teachers perceive it as important. Moreover the varying perceptions of teacher professional development by teachers are likely to affect their view of TPD. Using data collected from secondary school teachers, this study explored teachers’ understanding of the concept “teacher professional development, TPD approaches used by teachers and barriers/constraints they face. Results show that teachers have narrow understanding of the concept, and that to many TPD meant subject content upgrading by going back to teacher training college, while others view it as attending workshops and seminars. Barriers mentioned included shortage of time, lack of funds, lack of motivation and support by head teachers and government as a whole. Researchers recommend that teacher education should incorporate a component of professional teacher development in the initial teacher training. The head teachers and Ministry of Education and Sports should support in-service teachers in their endeavour to develop professionally. Teachers with low selfesteem should be motivated through attendance of conferences, workshops and group activities at local level.