Investigating the Longer-Term Impact of a Professional Development Program: A Five-Year Follow-Up Qualitative Study

Do changes in perspectives on teaching and learning that teachers experience in a professional development (PD) program persist over time? How might they evolve? In this article the author first summarizes the results of her original two-year qualitative study of Quebec CEGEP (college) teachers’ perspectives on teaching and learning within a PD program. She then describes the results of a follow-up qualitative study that she conducted with the same teachers five years later. Teacher interviews were coded using the constant comparative method (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). Three major conceptual themes emerged: teachers reported engaging (outside of teaching), innovating (within teaching) and evolving (professionally and personally). Threads that appeared in the original study re-emerged in the follow-up data. Monitoring the longer-term impact of PD programs can shed valuable light on the on-going process of teacher development