Chapter 3: the effects of a long-term professional development program on the beliefs and practices of experienced teachers

Just as preexisting beliefs mediate the ways in which messages received in preservice programs are interpreted and assimilated (Matanin & Collier, 2003), Bechtel and OʼSullivan (in press) suggest that beliefs have the potential to impact the effectiveness of professional development (PD) programs. This is of particular interest when considering the PD opportunities that underlie educational reform efforts for teachers of varying experience levels where the implicit goal of the PD initiative is one of teacher change (Fullan, 1992). If preexisting beliefs filter information, then these beliefs might in fact serve to mediate change in response to PD. Teachers are not passive recipients of PD—they are active participants. Teachers arrive at workshops with prior knowledge and varying levels of expertise in addition to differing values, identities, interests, and motivations (Levinson & Sutton, 2001). The knowledge provided at workshops is not merely transmitted to teachers, but is mediated by sociohistorical features of the mode of delivery. These include but are not exclusive to the language used to convey the content, subjective positions of participants as they negotiate their experience and relationships, and artifacts both brought to and created within PD interventions (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, & Cain, 1998; Wenger, 1998).