How Teachers Experience Learning and Change: a Phenomenographic Study of Internationalized Teacher Professional Development

This dissertation explores the internationalization of teacher professional development by investigating the experiences of teachers who have undergone an internationalized teacher professional development program and focusing on how teachers learn and change, what they learn and change and the conditions that support teachers learning and change. This dissertation is motivated by three specific research questions: (1) What personal and professional transformations do teachers report as a result of internationalized teacher professional development? (2) How do teachers learn and change as a result of internationalized teacher professional development? What conditions support and promote this learning and change? and (3) What can be said about the importance of internationalized teacher professional development for teacher learning and change? What makes for effective internationalized teacher professional development? Previous research has focused largely on experiences of internationalized pre-service teacher education while experiences of internationalization of teacher professional development are less addressed in the literature. This study aims to address this gap by advancing our understanding of internationalized teacher professional development and its impact on in-service teachers. I conducted a phenomenographic study using a sample of eleven teachers who underwent an internationalized teacher professional development program. The findings from the research support the literature on teacher learning that intensive programs with sustained support after teachers return to their local contexts are most effective in teachers experiencing transformational learning and change; challenge the literature that states teacher professional development does not change beliefs and attitudes of the teachers and it is ineffective in teachers implementing changes to their classroom practices; and add to the literature by showing that important personal and professional learning can occur within a culturally diverse group of teachers learning in a culturally new environment, leading to significant changes to relationships in the classroom and to classroom practice, and that dissonance in teacher thinking can be a very strong motivator for learning and change, lead to important shifts in perspective. This study concludes that internationalized teacher professional development is a highly effective, transformational form of teacher professional development in need of further research.