Early childhood professional development model of private schools in Punjab, Pakistan: A multiple case study

Professional development (PD) for early childhood education (ECE) teachers is a new venture in public school practices in Pakistan although some private schools have been providing ECE PD training to their teachers for about forty years. Due to the absence of any state regulation policies in the free-market school system, private institutions can adopt the state or the foreign-based curriculum and implement it through their individual PD structures. However, their ECE PD models have not been explored, examined or analyzed in the research literature. This multiple case study was designed to synthesize five PD models to present a substantive ECE PD model of private schools in Punjab, Pakistan. The ECE PD model outlines specific roles and responsibilities of key stakeholders (principal, ECE trainer, and ECE teacher) in centralized and distributive communication structures at four levels. The four levels comprise teacher needs assessments, sources of PD, school policies, and training implementation. The results of this study can provide ECE PD researchers, designers, and teacher educators with significant insights into future directions