Institutionalising In-service Training Programs for Teacher Professional Development TPD in Morocco: A Reading in Official Documents

الملخص

Teacher continuing training plays a significant role in updating teachers’ knowledge and renewing their basic skills; it provides more opportunities for Teacher Professional Development (TPD). In this respect, substantial projects and strategies have been elaborated to provide quality TPD programs to teachers through in-service training. To report and discuss significant findings on the prevalent characteristics of continuing training programs, the present paper provides a close reading in the background of continuing training as a main avenue to teacher professional development in Morocco and adopts an analysis of the related official documents. As the study reveals, the absence of a strategic vision on designing an arsenal of the organisational and pedagogical mechanisms required to achieve the expected goals has resulted in limited quality of in-service teacher training programs through which TPD is channeled. It recommends a participatory approach to the TPD programs design where plurality actors are involved to sustain individual teachers and help them grow professionally. It also underlines the importance of approaching teacher education and training as a «continuum». Structurally, in order to articulate teacher training as a «continuum», closer cooperation bonds need to appear between the different providers of both initial and continuing training for pre-service and inservice teachers, which could lead to synergy and better training experiences. The study puts forwards the importance of attending to teachers’ professional and individual needs and sustaining them through more hands-on learning experience and varied on-site activities. Otherwise, there is little chance that in-service training will have any significant impact on teachers’ professional development.