摘要：H ow do institutional policy documents espou se the a pproa ch towa rds the professional development of academics in their role as teachers at one South Africa n University. In order to a nswer the a bove question, the resear cher conducted a document analysis of the case study institution's documents re la ting to the tea ching a nd learning a genda foc using spe cifically on the developme nt of ac ademics as tea chers. Using the Ar cheria n socia l realist theoretica l framework, the paper analyses the cultu ral, structural and agential mechanisms in rela tion to the professional de velopment of academics as espoused in institutional policy documents at a University. T he findings from the document analysis suggest that while a n espoused culture exists, structure a nd agency do exert a n influence on the exte nt to w hich this espoused culture is translated into rea lity. The documents show the need to strengthen agency that will work in the domain of culture to effect a par adigm shift in terms of se eing the de velopment of academics a s teachers as an integral aspect of an a cademic's career. In a ddition the documents suggest a strengthening of the str uctures re sponsible for suppor ting the professiona l development of aca demic s. The study re commends str engthening of syner gy a mong the va rious struc tu res a nd a gents tha t dea l w ith sta ff de velopment to a void duplication and the re-inve nting of the whee l.
关键词：Structur e. Culture. Agency. Tea ching. Learning
