Teacher Professionalism and Professional Development Practices in South Sulawesi, Indonesia

Abstract

This study investigates teachers’ professionalism and professional development practices which still have lowerquality based on the law and do not produce an improved performance yet in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Thisinvestigation focuses on teachers’ behavior-attitude, pedagogic skills, and diversity learning activities througheffective professional development as commitment to do continuous improvement. The supporting factors and theconstraints of being professional teacher are also identified. The design of this study employs exploratory mixedmethod design with triangulation approach. Simple random sampling is occupied in choosing 331 samples out of2367 population to answer the questionnaires. While twelve teachers were selected using purposive sampling forinterview and observation. The t-test and Anova analysis show that gender has significant different inbehavior-attitude practice, while education professional qualification is significant on both behavior-attitude andteachers’ learning activities. The qualitative findings show the need to display exemplary behavior-attitude, strengthteaching skill, knowledge and beliefs through diversity learning activities in effective professional development.Teacher professional development needs supporting on policy, moral, infrastructure, and financial that can leadteachers to be professional. This study has provided a model of teacher professional development as an input forimproving the quality practice of teacher professionalism and professional development in Indonesia, particularly inSouth Sulawesi province.