Women Teachers’ Professional Development: general and personal perspectives

Abstract

Teachers’ professional development has become a topic of deep concern in view of the professionalisation of teaching on the one hand and of fast growth of knowledge on the other. Accordingly, attempts have been made to clarify, to describe and to conceptualise the process of professional development. Most of these attempts are theory oriented. This study presents a field oriented attempt to understand professional development from the teachers’ own point of view. A group of 20 women teachers were interviewed in two sessions. The interviews were protocolled and content‐analysed. Analysis yielded findings in two main areas: (a) Topics considered by the interviewees to be meaningful in their professional development: support; charismatic personalities; difficulties and disappointments; burnout; mission and values. Each of these is elaborated upon. (b) Profiles of teachers: cognitive/affective; structured/non‐structured; person/task orientations. An attempt is made at relating these findings to the existing literature on professional development.