The tale of two systems: EFL teachers' lived realities in Addis Ababa

Abstract

Addressing the gap between EFL teachers’ actual professional development practices and the governmental documentation system in Addis Ababa’s secondary schools, this paper focuses on Global South teacher agency, critiques deficit discourses, and provides a decolonial perspective on teacher professional development. We employed Heideggerian hermeneutic phenomenology to conduct in-depth interviews (16 individuals), two focus group discussions (8 participants) and hermeneutic analysis of eight official CPD portfolios in four sub-cities. There are five pathways of self-directed professional learning: individual practices; collaborative networks (participation in EELPA association); formal programs (widely denounced as irrelevant); technology-mediated learning; and aspirational visions of bottom-up CPD. Through document analysis, it became evident that the most treasured relational and collaborative practices of teachers are being systematically removed off the record by the CPD portfolios, which concentrate on the forms of performative compliance rather than genuine development. The Performative-Relational Bifurcation Framework is our theory of the documentation systems acting out the epistemic violence on teacher-generated knowledge. Policy implications of findings are directly related to policy redesign efforts within Ethiopia ESDP VI (2021-2025).