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Although many school districts provide continuous professional development (CPD) for their teachers in topics such as math and literacy, topics such as social emotional learning (SEL) require educators to seek additional professional development. Teachers may view SEL CPD as important for their own well-being as well as a mechanism for promoting student SEL; however, CPD is often critiqued by teachers as being misaligned with their personal and professional goals. Understanding the motivations that underlie teachers’ engagement with SEL CPD can inform the design and delivery of these learning opportunities. We investigated 394 teachers’ motivations for engaging in graduate-level, credit-bearing professional learning on SEL. Thematic analysis of teachers’ responses to open-ended survey questions indicates that motivations to learn more about SEL included: 1) strengthening their commitment to their personal growth, 2) being more responsive to students’ needs, 3) improving their classroom climate, 4) being a better teacher and leader, and 5) advancing equity. Findings add depth to traditional typologies (e.g. intrinsic, extrinsic, and altruistic) underlying teachers’ motivations for CPD. This study’s results have important implications for determining useful content for SEL CPD that more directly addresses the motivations of teachers and needs of students.
Morris et al. (Wed,) studied this question.