EFL Teachers" Beliefs, Practices and Challenges of Professional Development at Primary Schools

Dr. Tamiru Olana (Asso. Prof), and Dr. Rufael Disasa (Assi. Prof) Although there was teachers" professional development program in the initially observed primary schools, it could not improve the EFL teachers" teaching practices and students" language proficiency at the schools. So, this descriptive case study focused on four government primary schools of EFL teachers" beliefs, practices, and challenges of PD at Shambu Town to describe the teachers" beliefs about TPD, their TPD practices, the magnitude the TPD practices of the teachers reflected their beliefs, and the most common challenges the participants faced during their PD. For this purpose, using maximum variation sampling strategy, the researcher purposely selected eight EFL teachers of the primary schools of the town and gathered qualitative data from the participants. Data which were collected through interviews, classroom and out of class observations, and diary writings were recorded, organized, transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed based on the basic research questions. In doing so, topics were identified to display their implications. The findings of the study showed that although the teachers had positive beliefs about TPD in general, their practical work of PD did not fit with the beliefs. They had positive belief for the theory of TPD but had negative belief for the practical work of the program and acted accordingly in the context of their PD. In addition, the findings revealed that being influenced by lack of support and attention from the District Education Office, surrounding community and school leaders, the sampled EFL teachers developed negative beliefs about practical procedure of site-based model of TPD practices and only used standardized and self-directed models of TPD practices in the context of their PD. This shows that the TPD practices of the participants entirely reflected their newly emerged beliefs about the practical work of TPD. Moreover, the findings indicated that the EFL TPD was mainly challenged by the less attention that the District Education Office, surrounding community and school leaders had for the teaching profession as well as TPD. The main reason for this was that they did not positively approach for the teaching profession in general that resulted to discourage teachers from accomplishing their professional responsibility concerning the program. Based on the findings, it was concluded that unless the mentioned stakeholders of education give serious attention for the practical work of TPD and collaboratively work on the program based on site-based model of TPD, TPD of the schools cannot be effective in improving teachers" teaching practices and students" language proficiency. Therefore, the researcher suggests that it is essential to have positive belief and give serious attention for the teaching profession and site-based model of TPD practices at the side of the stakeholders of education by accomplishing their responsibilities that they have regarding the teaching profession in general.