Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the type of continuing professional development (CPD) embedded in a distinctive language public language school in Egypt with regard to three main aspects of CPD: purpose of the CPD, teachers’ learning, and teachers’ role within the CPD. A total of 150 teachers were surveyed through an open-ended questionnaire to examine those three aspects of CPD. Concurrently, eight teachers were also interviewed to bring about new insights on the three aspects of CPD as well as more depth, through exploration and probing. The results revealed that the CPD teachers attended can be classified as functional and transmissive (Kennedy, 2014; Sachs, 2016) in terms of the purpose of CPD, teacher learning and the role of the teacher within CPD. Teacher meetings were also perceived as administrative tasks rather than reflecting on teaching practices and promoting a professional dialogue among teachers. Furthermore, results of open-ended questionnaire and interviews showed the views of participants, who attended Teachers First CPD, on the purpose of this CPD as sharing knowledge, building communities of learning and their role as reflective practitioners. Teachers First CPD is an initiative provided by MOE to build professional learning communities in public schools in Egypt. The CPD encourages reflective teaching as a substantial aspect to build professional learning communities, yet those teachers’ perceptions of reflective teaching highlight issues related to providing teachers with a safe environment to reflect on their practices in the classroom and scaffolding teachers to understand the purpose and meaning of being reflective practitioners in professional learning communities.

Department

International & Comparative Education Department

Degree Name

MA in International & Comparative Education

Graduation Date

2-1-2019

Submission Date

June 2018

First Advisor

Hozayin, Russanne

Committee Member 1

Megahed, Nagwa

Committee Member 2

Skaggs, Jennifer

Extent

54 p.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Rights

The author retains all rights with regard to copyright. The author certifies that written permission from the owner(s) of third-party copyrighted matter included in the thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study has been obtained. The author further certifies that IRB approval has been obtained for this thesis, or that IRB approval is not necessary for this thesis. Insofar as this thesis, dissertation, paper, or record of study is an educational record as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 USC 1232g), the author has granted consent to disclosure of it to anyone who requests a copy.

Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval

Approval has been obtained for this item

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