PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS A PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION: TEACHERS’ NEW PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

The present research originates from the view that, for the redesign of continuing professional development (CPD), it would be important to understand the teachers on the kinds of professional development programmes that they feel are promising. Much of the literature emphasizes the importance of involving teachers in defining their needs and developing opportunities for their own professional development.  This paper is part of the larger quantity of study that explored teacher’s perspectives on CPD. I explore the views of teachers who participated in a CPD programme, specifically to find out how the programme personally transformed their practices, if at all. To collect the data, I employed qualitative semi-structured interviews with the participants several times during the data collection process. The participants were provided with informed consent and demonstrated their willingness to participate in the study. Based on the data collected, I conclude that teachers should not only be involved in the planning of the CPD programmes, but that the programmes be aligned with their personal circumstances and motivations. Only if the CPD programmes have personal meaning for the teachers will they have the potential to be transformative and life changing.