Teacher Professional Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Advancing Quality and Equitable Education

Joseph Pesambili and Marcina Singh

Teacher professional development in Sub-Saharan Africa is too often treated as a technical fix, a training programme, a donor project, a box to tick. This book argues otherwise.

Product Information

Categories:

Africa, Coming Soon, Education

Format:

234×156 mm

Pages:

360pp

ISBN-13:

978-0-7983-0554-9

Publish Year:

September 2026

Rights:

World Rights

Coming Soon: March 2027

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Chapter 1:
Teacher Professional Development and the Quest for Quality and Equitable Teaching and Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa: Framing Evidence, Tensions, and Policy Questions – Joseph C. Pesambili and Yusuf Sayed

Chapter 2:
Continuing Teacher Professional Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Mapping Conceptual Models, Policies, Governance, and Financing Frameworks – Joseph C. Pesambili and Yusuf Sayed

Chapter 3:
Costing and Cost Analysis of Continuous Professional Development Programmes in Tanzania and Malawi – Lisnet Mwadzaangati, Yohana S. William and Tiffany Banda

Chapter 4:
Continuing Professional Development for Primary School Teachers in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa: Provision, Governance, and the Role of International Technical and Financial Partners – Valérie Vinuesa, Mathias Kyélem, Martial Dembélé, Patrick Charland, Eric Luckenuik and Stéphane Cyr

Chapter 5:
Teacher Professional Learning Communities in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa: An Analysis in Light of the International Literature – Joséphine Mukamurera, Jean Adotevi and Martial Dembélé

Chapter 6:
Role of Leadership in Supporting School-based Continuing Professional Development for Teachers in Zambia and Zimbabwe – Kris Stutchbury ,Tom Power and Claire Hedges

Chapter 7:
Critical Reflections on a Multimodal Approach to Teacher Professional Development: A Case Study of the Teachers for Teachers Initiative in Kakuma and Kalobeyei Refugee Settlements, Kenya – Mary Mendenhall and Danielle Falk

Chapter 8:
Continuing Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers in Conflict-Affected Countries: The Case of South Sudan – Avelino Androga Said, Anders Breidlid, and Merethe Skårås

Chapter 9:
Artificial Intelligence, Technology, and CPTD in Ethiopia, Ghana, and South Africa: Current Realities and Systemic Gaps – Marcina Singh

Chapter 10:
Transformative Praxis and Continuing Professional Development: Developing an Alternative Theoretical Lens – Michael Samuel, Wedsha Appadoo-Ramsamy and Aruna Ankiah-Gangadeen

Chapter 11:
From Policy Ideals to Classroom Realities: Rethinking Teacher Professional Development for Quality and Equitable Learning in Sub-Saharan Africa – Joseph C. Pesambili and Marcina Singh

Teacher professional development in Sub-Saharan Africa is too often treated as a technical fix, a training programme, a donor project, a box to tick. This book argues otherwise. Drawing on empirical and conceptual chapters across Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone contexts including conflict-affected and refugee settings, it offers a critical, evidence-based look at how Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is designed, governed, financed, and experienced on the ground. It examines the structural constraints, fragmented authority, and donor dependence that shape CPD, and confronts the gap between ambitious reform agendas and the realities teachers actually work within. Global pedagogical models do not travel neutrally, they land differently in under-resourced systems, where what looks like resistance or failure is often professional judgment, adaptation, and ingenuity. This book takes teachers seriously. It centers agency, local knowledge, and context, pushing back against deficit narratives that cast African teachers as problems to fix rather than professionals to support. Its core argument: CPD is not a stand-alone intervention but a political, institutional, and ethical project. Getting it right is not a technical question it is a question of power, equity, and what quality teaching and learning truly demand.

Joseph Pesambili is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. His research spans teacher education and professional development, indigenous knowledge, anthropology of education, and comparative and international education, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and the Global South. He has led and contributed to regional and international research on CPD systems, teacher support, and equity-oriented professional learning, including work commissioned by governments and international organisations.

Marcina Singh is an interdisciplinary social science researcher at the University of Johannesburg with over a decade of experience in teacher education research. Her work includes a longitudinal study on initial teacher education at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and a British Council-funded synthesis of continuing professional development initiatives across the Global South. She has published widely on newly qualified teachers, teachers’ experiences during crisis and disruption, and inclusive education. She is currently the principal investigator on a national study examining the effects of generative AI on pastoral care roles, including teachers and teaching.