Teachers´ support in challenging situations: reflections from a teacher professional development programme sustainability in Guinea-Bissau

This paper focuses on the experience of a bilateral educational aid teachers’ continuing professional development programme, with specific reference to Guinea-Bissau - a West African small state. We were keen to understand... [ view full abstract ]

This paper focuses on the experience of a bilateral educational aid teachers’ continuing professional development programme, with specific reference to Guinea-Bissau - a West African small state. We were keen to understand how the implementation/ application of the teachers’ professional development programme were sustainable. The teachers’ continuing professional development under scrutiny is a long term school based program (2002-20012) developed in a context of fragility and political uncertainty. In the light of this, the data collection involved semi-structured interviews with schools principals, focus-groups with teachers, document analysis and field notes taken during meetings, informal conversations and observations. The paper argues that the programme improved the teachers' language skills and impact positively on the scientific, pedagogical and didactic contents. Nevertheless, some of the innovation introduced hardly can continue without some kind of external support taking in consideration the country and the education system fragility.