Developing and sustaining teachers' professional learning: a case study of collaborative professional development

Despite economic difficulties, the emphasis on and investment in teacherprofessional development (PD) across the world continues, as countriesstrive to improve educational standards to compete in a globalisedknowledge economy. However, researchers have little evidence of its impacton teachers’ professional practice. While it is acknowledged that PD needs tobe assessed and evaluated, there is little guidance as to how this might beachieved. Much focus is on short-term impact, with longer-term impact oftenignored despite sustainability of practices being highlighted as critical forschool improvement.This study set out to explore the impact of a collaborative PD initiative onteachers’ professional practice in five urban disadvantaged primary schoolsin the Republic of Ireland. A qualitative approach was used to explore shorttermand longer-term impact, along with factors that helped or hindered thedevelopment and sustainability of the PD practice. The literature reviewrevealed gaps in existing frameworks for evaluation, resulting in thedevelopment of a ‘Professional Development Impact Evaluation Framework’which is presented in the thesis. It demonstrates how the framework wasboth developed from extant literature and critiqued through application, anddiscusses its potential for evaluating the impact of a range of PD activitiesand answering the call for accountability in these straitened times.Findings revealed a PD legacy that resulted not only in practices beingsustained, but demonstrating a PD multiplier, where the impact of thecollaborative PD initiative extended beyond the initiative itself to includemany changes, even at a cultural level. Given the significance of the PDmultiplier, this study suggests that PD facilitators support such culturalchanges on a larger scale in schools. A significant feature of change is theteacher as a change-agent, and this study proposes a number of typologiesof teacher engagement which may have some implications for teacher PD.Impacting on these typologies were three key elements that contributed toiiteachers’ professional learning and which reflect a developing notion ofagentic teacher professionalism: bottom-up approaches with top-downsupport; autonomy and professional trust; and collaborative practices andcollective responsibility.