School leaders’ perspectives of the continuous professional development of teachers

Teachers’ engagement with high quality continuous professional development (CPD) opportunities has repeatedly and consistently been linked to an array of positive outcomes for students, teachers, and the wider school community. In light of this, multiple countries have developed and designed frameworks for CPD, such as Cosán in Ireland, the CPD Framework in the UK, and NF-TCPD in Tanzania. Despite this, the delivery, availability, and quality of CPD opportunities has, unfortunately, been debated in recent years and has been identified as an area requiring immediate action. Some barriers to successful CPD implementation include time constraints, financial constraints, and balancing student and staff needs. One aspect which has been shown to influence the uptake of CPD opportunities of employees, yet which is scarcely regarded in literature pertaining to education, is school leader influence. Due to this, to ensure that CPD opportunities are delivered and engaged with, it is imperative to understand the perceptions of school leaders themselves. The purpose of the current study is to garner those perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 17 school leaders to identify their experiences and perceptions of the facilitation of CPD opportunities for their staff. From the perspectives of the school leaders who participated in this research, is identified as important for all staff and schools, but multiple barriers and facilitators need to be considered to ensure successful implementation. Based on the findings of this research, a 4-step process for CPD implementation is identified and presented.