Teacher professionalism and professional development practices in South Sulawesi Indonesia

TLDR: In this paper, the authors investigated the professional development practices of secondary school teachers in South Sulawesi, Indonesia and identified supporting factors needed such as policy and government role, moral recognition, infrastructure, and finance to improve teachers' professional development.

Abstract: This study investigates professionalism and professional development practices of secondary school teachers in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Aspects of professionalism practice studied are behaviour-attitude, pedagogical competence and characteristics of teachers’ professional practice. In term of professional development elements, this research has investigated effective learning activities as well as support and constraint factors in improving teachers’ professionalism and professional development. A total of 331 teachers were selected as respondents in answering the questionnaires. Meanwhile, 12 teachers were selected for interviews and observations. Survey, interview, observation, and field note were employed to obtain data in answering research problems. The findings were analyzed by using qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of this study showed that teachers’ pedagogical competence was at a high level. Teachers’ professional practice in the aspects of behaviour-attitude, pedagogical competence, and learning activities were still less effective in developing skills of teachers. Professional development activities that should be emphasized include focus on the content, availability of time, coherence with government’s policy, active learning of participants, and collective participation of teachers. This study identified supporting factors needed such as policy and government role, moral recognition, infrastructure, and finance which were important in improving teachers’ professionalism. In addition, constraint factors for teachers’ professionalism and professional development were self-motivation, commitment, and availability of time to involve in learning activities at workplace and lifelong learning. This study provides a framework for professional teacher development in improving the practice of teachers’ professionalism and professional development in Indonesia.