Teacher professional development during the pandemic: a constructivist grounded theory study in vocational education

This study explores how vocational high school teachers developed professionally during the COVID-19 pandemic and what conditions, actions, and consequences shaped that process. Employing a constructivist grounded theory approach, the authors conducted intensive interviews with 12 teachers from the Federal Institute of Education Science and Technology of Bahia, Brazil, and analyzed the data following Charmaz’s guidelines. Findings show that professional development unfolded as a self-driven process under crisis conditions. Abrupt disruption of in-person teaching, low prior proficiency in educational technologies, and late or limited institutional training created challenges. In response, teachers mobilized self-education, peer collaboration, pedagogical replanning, self-provision of infrastructure, and relational care with students to sustain teaching. These responses generated professional learning and growth, but also emotional strain, work overload, and blurred boundaries between personal and professional life. The authors theorize this process as self-driven professional development under crisis, offering an empirically grounded contribution to teacher development.