Evaluation of the community development practitioners’ professional development programme: CIPP model application

ABSTRACT

Although resources are invested in maintaining the professional standards, knowledge, and skills of community development practitioners (CDPs), research has not established if they have benefited adequately from the provisions of an appropriate professional development programme. The Stufflebeam’s CIPP model was used to evaluate this, which is the first exercise of its kind in South Africa. This qualitative study reports on the circumstances associated with its planning. Lack of alignment between the professionals’ needs and learning activities was uncovered, which resulted from the absence of learning activities which meet the needs of CDPs and poor planning. A planning framework is proposed to mitigate the obstacles and challenges.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil society – Partnership, Participation
• Aid – Capacity development
• Social sector – Education
• Sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Mokgadi Molope is a Lecturer in the Development Studies Programme at the North-West University, Faculty of Humanities in the School of Social Sciences. Her areas of interest are rural development, community development, gender, social cohesion, and professional development.

Akpovire Oduaran is a Professor of Education in the School for Teacher Education and Training, Faculty of Education and Training at the North-West University. His areas of interest are community development, distant learning, lifelong learning, and professional development.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by North-West University: [Grant Number 1D01146].