Professional Development Models for French Language Teachers in Nigerian State Secondary Schools

The professional development of French language teachers in Nigerian state secondary schools is an underfunded and poorly coordinated activity that relies heavily on infrequent and poorly designed workshops rather than sustained, job-embedded professional learning. Designing effective professional development models tailored to the Nigerian state secondary school context requires empirical understanding of current practice gaps and teacher learning needs. This study examines existing professional development provision for French teachers in state secondary schools across Anambra, Kogi, and Zamfara States, and develops a contextually appropriate professional development model. A mixed methods design was employed, combining surveys of 95 French teachers regarding professional development needs, experiences, and preferences with document analysis of state ministry of education professional development records and interviews with 18 educational administrators. A professional development model was designed through an iterative process and validated through a Delphi exercise with twenty-two expert respondents. Results from the needs analysis identify oral proficiency refreshment, communicative pedagogy application, and digital resource integration as the three most urgently required professional development areas. Current provision is episodic, largely content-irrelevant, and poorly attended due to cost and travel requirements. The validated professional development model integrates school-based peer coaching, online collaborative learning communities, annual subject-specific workshops, and termly peer observation cycles. Recommendations target state ministry professional development units and argue for dedicated French teacher professional development budget lines. Keywords: professional development, French teachers, state secondary schools, teacher learning, Nigeria