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The paper investigates allocation of time as strategy established by communities of practice to enhance continuing professional teachers' development in selected high schools. Having sufficient time by teachers to collaborate together and learn is essential to enhancing their professional development. The study adopted qualitative research approach and case study research design. Findings revealed that time allocated for communities of practice are limited which do not enable teachers to have opportunity to learn as a team. The study concluded that teachers do not have sufficient time to engage in collaborative learning activities. It is recommended that teachers should spend adequate time for learning activities in communities of practice. Regular and fixed time should be allocated for communities of practice such that teachers will have enough time to collaborate. Teachers should meet at least once in a week for a minimum of 1 hour in schools for communities of practice.

BackgroundThere is need for ‘high-quality’ teachers who are equipped to meet the needs of all learners through provision of education for an inclusive society according to equal opportunities to all.ObjectiveThis paper investigates pockets of good practice in the adaptation of the curriculum for the inclusion of learners with special education needs (SEN) in selected primary schools in the Fort Beaufort District.MethodThe study adopted a qualitative research approach and employed a case study design. Eight teachers and 10 principals from 10 selected primary schools, 4 education district officials and 1 provincial official were interviewed. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants. Data were collected using document analysis and semi-structured interviews and were analysed thematically.ResultThe study established that teachers use methods relating to different teaching strategies, individual work, group work and extra work.ConclusionIt was concluded that there are pockets of good practice of inclusion policy such as the use of different teaching strategies, individual work, group work and extra work for inclusion of learners with SEN in some of the selected primary schools in the poor rural context. The paper recommends adequate training for teachers in curriculum adaptation in order for all teachers to accommodate learners with SEN.

This study explores trust and positive working relationships among teachers in communities of practice as an avenue for professional development in high schools in South Africa. A mixed methods research approach was employed for this study with the use of a semi-structured interview and semi-structured questionnaires as data collection instruments. Ten schools were purposively selected for this study and seventy-nine participants were selected as samples. The findings of the study show that teachers had good working relationships with their colleagues. The good working relationships they had enabled them to assist their colleagues, share their classroom challenges with them, confide in their colleagues, and they were able to get assistance from them. It was established from the study that a great number of teachers feel safe to be part of the communities of practice activities in the sampled high schools, thus, they engage in diverse of discussions with their colleagues and they were able to relate to their colleagues the difficulties they have in terms of their work. The study recommends that teachers should spend an adequate time in their meetings, see themselves as colleagues, interact as teams, and build strong ties to have good relationships and a strong level of trust among themselves.

This study is located in pragmatic research paradigm and adopted mixed methods research approach to get in-depth information from participants on enhancing continuing professional teachers’ development in high schools through support and monitoring offered to communities of practice by stakeholders. Semi-structured questionnaires and semi-structured interview were used as the research instruments to solicit information from seventy-nine participants selected as samples. The participants were purposely selected because of their involvement in communities of practice activities in their schools. The data were analysed descriptively using simple percentage tables for quantitative data while qualitative data were analysed thematically based on the themes that emerged. The findings of the study show that teachers received lot of support from education district officials and facilitators of communities of practice. The type of support received include organising content gap workshop for teachers, encouraging team work, helping teachers in difficult areas of their subjects and assist in difficult areas of facilitation. The findings of the study also indicate that support and monitoring measures in communities of practice helped teachers get feedback that assist them to know areas of their subject matter they need to address and improve on. Recommendations were made that district officials should go on regular class visits to monitor teachers to check if they are implementing what they have learnt in the communities of practice and regular on-site support should be provided for teachers by subject advisors.