Professional development of academics in public colleges of education in Nigeria: a case study

This qualitative case study examines the experiences of academic staff in public colleges of
education in Nigeria with the aim of understanding professional development policy and
practice within that context. My motivation for this research stemmed from the personal
thoughts and questions I had about my PD as an academic, and the assumption in and outside
the academia that education policies (including PD policy) no matter how well-intentioned,
are often not translated into action as planned at the institution level. The study which was
underpinned by the constructivist-interpretivist philosophy, have four questions that were
formulated to guide this research. The theoretical perspectives were derived from the review
of relevant literature, while the empirical evidence was obtained through critical analysis of
the relevant PD policy documents and conducting of semi-structured interviews with 22
participants from two case study colleges. The participants were selected through the
purposive sampling technique. The study data was analysed using inductive thematic
analysis, and significant findings emerged which could help in deepening insights about PD
policy, how it is practiced, academics’ attitude towards it, and its impacts on Nigeria college
of education academic staff’s development. Among the findings is one which indicate that
there is poor understanding of the policy especially among academic tutors, occasioned by
the ambiguous nature of the policy, and the dwindled interest in reading/studying of the
policy document because of the perception that the responsibility of actioning the policy lies
majorly on the shoulders of academic leaders. The study suggests the need for policy reforms
to address the identified issue of policy ambiguity, and a shift from the current practice of a
single top-down PD approach to A 3-stage bottom-up framework. This framework will
promote a robust democratic process that allows for multiple iterative engagements and
discussions across the different levels of department, faculty/school, and college management
committee, that will accommodate the diverse voices of academic leaders and tutors, in the
interpretation and implementation of the academic staff PD policy. This will practically
address the identified issues in this research, including poor understanding of the policy by
most academic tutors, concerns about the policy implementation, and involvement of tutors in
the PD policy interpretation and application.