摘要：Worldwide schools are confronted with a myriad of contextual cha llenges such as teenage pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, poverty, substance abuse, child hea ded households, suicide, to mention a few. South Africa, a country tha t is yet to win the war aga inst poverty and underde velopment is not an exception. Life Orientation (LO) as a subject presents schools in South Africa with opportunities to empower young people with knowledge a nd life skills to make meaningful choices. Whist the Department of Basic Education in South Africa has developed a clea rly set LO curriculum, which has well-defined outcomes; it is not clear whether their tra ining as LO teacher s adequa tely equips them to deal with these multiple social issues affecting learners. The focus of this phe nomenological study was to explore the dynamics in the Persona l a nd Professional Development (PPD ) of LO teachers in South Africa, in the G auteng Province. Da ta were collected throu gh nine individual interviews, two focus group interviews and tw o colla ges by pa rticipa nts from 14 districts within the Ga uteng D epartme nt of Educa tion ( GDE). The findings suggested that the PPD of LO teachers was impeded by the fact tha t it did not address issues such as their personal experie nce s, their attitudes towa rds L O, the L O c urric ulum delivery, and the complex roles they play in de aling with challenging issues. Ba sed on these findings recommenda tions are ma de on how to best address these dynamics through their PPD a nd how to best support LO te achers to ensure me aningful tea ching of LO.
关键词：L ife Or ientation. Persona l a nd Professional Tea cher D evelopment. Curriculum Re for m. Tea cher ; Su pport. Bio-Ec ologica l
