ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH SCHOOL-BASED TRAINING: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY

Abstract

Teacher education programs are more than simply conducting trainings for teachers of a particular level and sharing the ways of classroom teaching. In the changing context, teacher training programs are necessary to organize at a particular school to equip its teachers with their required knowledge, skills, or attitude for life long professional development and perform their everyday tasks effectively in a real context. This research reflects the views of English language teachers about their professional development endeavors in reference to the school-based training and developing their professional skills as per their particular school context. The main purpose of this research is to explore the English language teachers’ perceptions of the school-based training and how the school-based training assists the teachers to update their professional skills and apply them into real classroom practices. For this, I adopted the interpretive paradigm of research where lived experiences of the four teachers from four different districts were elicited through a narrative inquiry method. The primary instrument used in this study was teachers’ interview guidelines under which they were requested to recount their lived understandings through in-depth interviews to reveal on their experiences and perceptions of their school-based training and develop their professional skills. I applied the theory of socio-culture as the school-based training is contextual and social values matter in the learning process. Similarly, transformative learning theory was connected in terms of developing professional skills and updating some pedagogical knowledge with the school-based training. The study provided teachers’ perceptions of school-based training for their professional development as relevant and useful events. The findings show that school-based training is one of the best practices of teacher education which the participants well appreciate as it focuses on the teachers' needs of a particular school context. Results from this study explained the prospective link between teacher training and developing professional skills. This training model has helped the teachers' to develop their professional pedagogical skills and knowledge. The results may be utilized to provide insights for policymakers, administrators, and educators on how to increase such school-focused training programs to cater to the teachers' individual needs as well as for skills transformation into the real classroom setting. The results indicated a more positive attitude of teachers’ perceptions of school-based professional development training programs.