**9. Summary and conclusions**

This chapter has focused on teaching, learning and sustainability issues in distance education, by focusing on the development and implementation of an interactive radio learning programme implemented in 11% of all South African schools. It has highlighted changes which took place in the programme's vision, and in its curriculum over the seventeen year period of its implementation in schools. Our narrative has focused in particular on contrasting visions of radio learning and on shifts in the programme's implementation theory which took place over this period.

This chapter has highlighted a shift in vision of the project team from a skills-based view of educational change to a process vision of educational change based on open learning principles. The evidence from our evaluative data would suggest that the shift was from a product to a process view of curriculum (Hamilton, 1976; Stenhouse, 1975; 1980; 1981). This remained the central guiding principle on which the programme's theory of implementation was based over the fifteen year period post the advent of democracy in South African in 1994.

We have characterized this as a shift from a vision of educational change as product and skills-based to a product-based and process-related vision, in which curriculum content can form a basis for supporting teaching and learning in the classroom. We have also traced the programme's growth to scale, and suggested reasons for its acceptance by teachers and learners, as well as its endorsement by principals and educational officials, as it grew from providing support to an initial 360 teachers and 14 500 learners under USAID funding in 1993, to an estimated 45 000 teachers and 1 800 000 learners under maximal DfID funding in 2004, and an estimated 40 000 teachers and 1 300 000 learners across all nine provinces of

programme were well tested in the field, having been developed, implemented and

What other projects can take forward is the evidence of positive response from teachers in large numbers of schools and classrooms to the provision of in-service training and classroom-based support by the project team. There was consistent evidence from our data that this was perceived to be beneficial, for the reason that the programme's model of open learning, though based on limited material support to schools, nevertheless addressed a number of needs, and provided the type of material and in-service training support which was not provided by the education system. A high level of advocacy for the programme's

In schools and classrooms, our data also indicate that the influence of the programme on teacher practices took place not only in the half hour daily interactive radio lessons beamed nationally by the SABC, but also in the use of its materials for teaching English across the curriculum. In many classrooms, in addition, there was adoption by teachers of a focus on the type of classroom-based evaluation of teaching practices advocated by the programme over its seventeen year life (Potter, Chand, Naidoo and Friend, 2007; Potter and Naidoo, 2007; 2009a; 2009b; 2010). On the basis of perceived value and relevance, the programme was also endorsed by the principals at school level (Silva, 2008), those educational officials tasked with providing in-service training to teachers at provincial level (Potter & Naidoo,

This chapter has focused on teaching, learning and sustainability issues in distance education, by focusing on the development and implementation of an interactive radio learning programme implemented in 11% of all South African schools. It has highlighted changes which took place in the programme's vision, and in its curriculum over the seventeen year period of its implementation in schools. Our narrative has focused in particular on contrasting visions of radio learning and on shifts in the programme's

This chapter has highlighted a shift in vision of the project team from a skills-based view of educational change to a process vision of educational change based on open learning principles. The evidence from our evaluative data would suggest that the shift was from a product to a process view of curriculum (Hamilton, 1976; Stenhouse, 1975; 1980; 1981). This remained the central guiding principle on which the programme's theory of implementation was based over the fifteen year period post the advent of democracy in South African in

We have characterized this as a shift from a vision of educational change as product and skills-based to a product-based and process-related vision, in which curriculum content can form a basis for supporting teaching and learning in the classroom. We have also traced the programme's growth to scale, and suggested reasons for its acceptance by teachers and learners, as well as its endorsement by principals and educational officials, as it grew from providing support to an initial 360 teachers and 14 500 learners under USAID funding in 1993, to an estimated 45 000 teachers and 1 800 000 learners under maximal DfID funding in 2004, and an estimated 40 000 teachers and 1 300 000 learners across all nine provinces of

evaluated in the classrooms of large numbers of teachers.

2010), and by the provincial and national educational authorities.

implementation theory which took place over this period.

approach thus developed among teachers.

**9. Summary and conclusions** 

1994.

South Africa who utilised the programme's materials during its final year of operation in 2009.

Our data would suggest that both the product and process levels of the curriculum were successfully developed and implemented post 1994, in a large number of classrooms. With DfID funding, the programme expanded to implementation across all nine provinces, and in 11% of all South African schools. The programme's implementation over the final five year funding period was based on a model in which programme implementation was tied to use of participatory evaluation methods in providing in-service training to teachers at school and classroom levels. Our data would suggest that this approach had great potential. Our data would also suggest clear longitudinal indications of advocacy on the part of teachers, principals and educational officials. This evidence was tapped through interviews, questionnaires and focus groups, and was consistent over the entire seventeen year period of the programme's life.

In terms of use of radio as a way of reaching large numbers of teachers and schools, we have highlighted in this chapter clear longitudinal evidence of perceptions of the value of the curriculum materials, and of the benefit of the in-service training and support provided by the programme at school and classroom levels. However, sustainability remained a major problem and an unresolved issue in the programme. The South African Radio Learning Programme ceased its operation after seventeen years of implementation on a national level, at a time when it had achieved the advocacy of all nine provincial departments of education.

In terms of lessons learned, the relevance of the programme's work can be gauged not only from the extent of its outreach, but also from the endorsement of all nine provincial education departments across South Africa. Based on the advocacy of teachers, principals, and educational officials, the first level of institutionalization of the programme's work was achieved, involving the departmental and ministerial endorsement of the in-service involvement of large numbers of teachers in the programme's teacher support group activities and workshops, as well as the use of the programme's learner support materials by teachers as an integral part of their classroom teaching. Nevertheless, despite a memorandum of understanding from the Ministry of Education indicating the intention to continue the programme's work in five hundred primary schools, the second level of institutionalisation involving financial support from the educational authorities was not achieved.

On the teaching and learning level, the evidence we have presented in this chapter would thus support the research on school development indicating the importance of developing support and advocacy among multiple educational stakeholders (Fullan, 1982; Fullan & Stiegelbauer, 1992; Hargreaves, 1992; Hargreaves & Fullan, 1992). It would also support the resurgence of interest in radio learning and its potential in teacher development, particularly in developing countries (Bosch, 1997; 2001; Perraton, 2000; Perraton, Robinson & Creed, 2001; 2007; Robinson & Latchem, 2003). On the sustainability level, what is clear from our data is that the discontinuation of the South African Radio Learning Programme's work at the end of 2009 left a number of gaps in in-service training of teachers at primary school level across the South African education system.

It is our hope that the South African ministry of education and provincial education departments will move to address these needs in the future. It is also our hope that other

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**5**

M. Mahruf C. Shohel *The Open University United Kingdom* 

**Open and Distance Learning for Teachers' Professional Development: The English in** 

Emerging technologies have been changing everything from the way people work to the way they communicate with each other or even spend their leisure time. For expanding Education for All (EFA) and achieving Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), new technologies in education are a crucial new area for policy makers and practitioners at all levels (UNESCO, 2005a). MDG 8 Target 5 is very precise - to develop a global partnership for development by making 'available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communication technologies' (United Nations, 2010). Across the world, most countries have policies in place to promote effective expansion of the use of new technologies in education. As a developing country, new technologies have significant potential for the development of Bangladesh. However, in this chapter Bangladesh is

Teachers are at the core of attempts to expand, improve and reform the education systems of any country. Over the last decade the global commitments to achieve EFA and MDGs have resulted in a marked expansion of school systems. However, there is a sense of crisis around the future of the teaching profession across the globe. Reports suggest that at least 18 million teachers are needed globally for achieving EFA and MDGs within the timeframe (UNESCO, 2007, 2008). Teacher education and training is therefore a burning issue in the countries of the Global South, such as Bangladesh, where the State has largely failed to provide basic education for its citizens. Evidences around the globe show, 'Countries that have achieved high learning standards have invested heavily in the

Teachers' professional development is a career long process which involves going through a major transformation. Open and distance learning (ODL) systems are making an increasing contribution to the professional development of teachers as 'school standards and professional standards are inextricably linked, and the need for a teaching force that is flexible and adaptable to the impact of rapidly changing structures of work and leisure' (Moon, 1997, 8). Building on the opportunities offered by emerging technologies, open and distance learning has a potentially valuable role to play in teachers' professional

presented as an example of such a country in the Global South.

teaching profession' (UNESCO, 2005b, 3).

development.

**1. Introduction** 

**Action (EIA) Model for the Global South** 

