Facilitating Professional Development of Madrasah Chemistry Teachers : analysis of its establishment in the decentralized educational systems of Indonesia

Providing favorable conditions for implementing an educational change is a major challenge for all actors in education, including the government, schools, principals and teachers. The conditions are particularly important for teachers as the key actors in education in order to act in accordance with the educational objectives. For the purpose of providing the favorable conditions, understanding the educational change is important. In educational change the role of teachers is important for success. Professional development of the teachers contributes to the knowledge and skills needed in this change. Many studies have reported the importance of communities of teachers’ for this. However, studies on establishing communities for professional development of teachers in a decentralized educational system are lacking. This thesis describes research on facilitating professional development of teachers of Islamic schools (madrasah) during a curriculum change in a decentralized educational system of Indonesia. The studies in this research project aim to contribute to the knowledge base on this issue. The overall research question in this thesis is: In what way can professional development activities of madrasah chemistry teachers be facilitated during curriculum change in a decentralized education system in Indonesia? To facilitate professional development activities of madrasah teachers, a sequence of studies was conducted. The first study involved an analysis of the chemistry curriculum through characterizing the curriculum representations and emphases. The second study involved an analysis of the conditions for the curriculum change that influenced the teachers. These studies were conducted to provide a better understanding of the conditions within which measures should be planned to facilitate the teachers. The third and fourth study focused on the design and implementation of intended condition of change by the teachers and other local actors. This was based on the results from the previous studies, such as the sizable slippage found in the curriculum representations and the unfavorable conditions for professional development of teachers. A participatory design approach was used to facilitation establishing a community of madrasah chemistry teachers for their activities in curriculum development. Implementation of six strategies by the educational actors did result in conditions that were to a large extent as intended and favorable for the teachers. In the final study teachers’ professional development activities under the favorable conditions were investigated. The teachers experienced ownership to arrange, enact, and reflect on their professional development. They reported professional, personal, interpersonal, and institutional change. Particularly important for their practice in class were their professional changes which also involved practical chemical experiments by students. The slippage in the curriculum emphases, as found in the first study, might be reduced in such a process of facilitating the professional development activities of chemistry teachers with ownership at the local level. The results of these final three studies were found to be beneficial to facilitate professional development activities of chemistry teachers in a decentralized educational system. The results of these studies are important for policy makers, principals and teachers who aim to improve the professional development of teachers and curriculum development.