Impacts of an international professional development program: A qualitative study

Authors

Marijn W. T. de Waal, James Madison UniversityFollow

Preferred Name

Marijn de Waal

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7440-6092

Date of Graduation

5-8-2020

Semester of Graduation

Spring

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Department of Educational Foundations and Exceptionalities

Second Advisor

C. Ruth Bosch

Third Advisor

Robbie Higdon

Abstract

This qualitative study with phenomenological components examined the impacts of a U.S. State Department-funded teacher professional development program, hosted at a liberal-arts university on the east coast of the United States in the spring semester of 2018. An initial review of the public literature revealed that it was challenging to find evaluation data pertaining to this particular program or ones of a similar nature. Through semi-structured synchronous online interviews with five program alumni, the researcher probed if—and if so, how—the professional development (PD) program had made the intended impacts on participants’ (1) teaching methods/curriculum, (2) content knowledge in their personal teaching disciplines, and (3) international relationships/perceptions of other cultures. The results indicate that the program has impacted teachers’ education philosophies, English language skills, understanding of other cultures, knowledge of effective teaching methods, and educational technology skills. Key take-aways include that the strengths of the PD program included that it was connected to teachers’ individual classroom needs, included theory and practice, fostered collaboration between participants and U.S. educators, and facilitated myriad opportunities for meaningful interaction to foster intercultural understanding.