We examine the role of organizational supports and barriers in shaping teachers’ professional development experiences across 46 education systems. We uncover overwhelmingly consistent and compelling results that providing organizational support and eliminating organizational barriers is associated with positive professional development outcomes. These supports are not just financial incentives or opportunities for career progression, but also arrangements that honor teachers’ time, their lives outside work, and their resource investments. These include release and readjustment in teaching time, study leave, reimbursement for costs incurred, and access to necessary materials. Similarly, eliminating organizational barriers to ensure programs align with teachers’ existing qualifications and needs and are attentive to teachers’ lives and obligations beyond school hours is also important. The consistency of these findings across diverse education systems offers insights for designing impactful and scalable PD experiences.
Chudgar et al. (Thu,) studied this question.