International Journal of Innovative Research and Development

Abstract

Awra Amba is a small community living in South Gonder.  It is characterized by its own living style and ideological praxis which makes it a unique philosophical landscape in the region attracting not less than 5000 local and international tourists as of 2011/12 statistics from the community leaders. In view of the above, the current study attempts to have a look at the Socio-cultural Sustainability of the community. Specifically the study attempts to evaluate the level of sustainability, anticipate the extent of sustainability and recommend interventions as appropriate, identify the hindrances that hold back the economic and cultural state of affairs from spinning out in spatial and temporal facets. To achieve this, the researchers made use of focused group discussions, interviews, and structured observations by adopting sustainability checklist to the context.  It is found out that the sustainability of the community is at stake because the means of income is not diversified and individuals working at the weaving centers are frequently experiencing kidney failures as they work on traditional, sturdy machines all day long. The fact that the community is rigid, and doesn’t allow any form of plurality especially in religion and related ideology made the community to be isolated. Thus, the researchers argue that unless these things are going to be reconsidered and measures taken, the community may not sustain its very existence in general and its socio-cultural practices in particular. 

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Abstract

Professionalism is a complex term which remained to be illusive to come up with definitions. It is usually related to the formal and informal development of professional skill that occurs in the workplace. Research into professionalism in ELT deals with professional authority, research, collegiality, and working atmosphere, among others. In line with this, the current study attempts to asses Professionalism and professional development of teachers in English Language teaching at the University of Gondar. The researcher developed questionnaire based on the available literature in the area. The questionnaires were designed to have both open-ended and close ended type questions to measure the teaching personnel’s rate of professionalism and professional development items. The findings of the study show that the teaching personnel have far lower access to journals to up-date themselves. They rarely engage themselves in reading such publications and trainings and workshops in ELT as well. In contrast, their responses show that they have very good professional authority in decision making related to teaching-learning activities. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher would like to recommend that the positively rated items should be kept up. Moreover, the institution shall arrange professional development trainings and workshops which are specifically targeted to ELT teachers’ specialization. The institution shall also make some subscriptions to foreign as well as local journals so that the teaching personnel shall update themselves with current knowledge in teaching theories and methods to shore up quality and to develop professionally.

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