Teachers’ professionalism and continuing professional development: The perceptions of accounting teachers in vocational high schools in Yogyakarta Indonesia

Teacher professional development is considered an important strategy in education reform (e.g. Day & Sachs, 2004). Even though there is much written about professional development, teacher professionalism and new conceptions of professionalism, little research has investigated teachers’ perceptions of these concepts. In Indonesia, the government is reforming national education in line with globalisation with a focus on teacher competencies and teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD). I used Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model to explore Indonesian vocational education teachers’ perceptions of professionalism and continuing professional development and the environments in which development occurs. The study employed a qualitative interpretive approach to better understand teachers’ perceptions of professionalism and CPD and factors they perceived to be related to their CPD. The participants were six accounting teachers in Yogyakarta province, Indonesia, including three certified teachers and three uncertified teachers. Data sources included face-to-face interviews and teaching artefacts the teachers brought to the interview and used to explain their views and experience. The data were analysed using thematic analysis. Teachers’ explanations revealed a range of perceptions of professionalism and CPD. While some teachers’ conceptions of professionalism were traditional, others were in the process of change towards a transformative conceptualisation. These accounting teachers perceived a range of factors affected their CPD, including person characteristics and environmental contexts such as students, family, colleagues at the microsystem level, principal and school level teacher forum at the mesosystem level, laws and provincial level teacher forum at the exosystem level, and national qualification framework, curriculum, ASEAN Economic Community at the macrosystem level. I discuss the importance of these factors in developing strategies to support teacher development to meet the demands of a changing society