Initiatives and Changes in Professional Development of Mathematics Teachers in Zimbabwe (1990–2020): Current Practices and Future Directions

Improving the quality of mathematics teacher training has important implications for students’ learning and achievement. With the goal of understanding the kinds of initiatives, opportunities and challenges that characterised professional development of mathematics teachers in Zimbabwe, a systematic review of related documents was conducted. Documents were accessed from the mathematics divisions by individual researchers who represented teacher training institutions. Document analysis that focused on entry requirements, nature of content dealt with, pedagogical practices, the kinds of enhancers for different teacher training models at pre-service and continuing professional learning levels in various mathematics education institutions was carried out. Initiatives and affordances revealed by document analysis include: the upgrading of teacher qualifications from Certificate in Education to Diploma in Education through to undergraduate degrees in mathematics education. Recent initiatives in mathematics teacher training involved postgraduate studies with an increase in enrollments for the Master of Science Education degree studies. However, doctoral studies for teacher trainers are still to record significant graduation rates in universities in Zimbabwe. Mathematics teacher training was characterised by low enrollments due to dwindling support for student teachers. Results reveal efforts by training institutions to mitigate threats to teacher professional development. This chapter also reports on insights generated from reflections on initial teacher training experiences by student teachers on continuing professional development. We conclude this chapter by proposing possible areas for research and suggest future directions for improving mathematics teacher training.