Spanning Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone contexts—including conflict-affected and refugee settings—Joseph Pesambili and Marcina Singh offer a critical, evidence-based examination of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programs across Africa. What they confront is a stubborn reality: the gap between ambitious reform expectations and the institutional conditions in which teachers actually work.

The chapter authors argue that CPD is not a stand-alone intervention to magically produce a superior education, but instead must be coupled with an understanding of issues such as fragmented authority and power, under-resourced systems and equity, and vastly differing geographical, political, and economic contexts that may influence teaching and learning.