Organisational factors and teachers' professional development in Dutch secondary schools

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to report on a study that investigates the relationship between organisational factors, Teachers' Professional Development (TPD) and occupational expertise.Design/methodology/approach – A survey was administered among 152 Dutch teachers in secondary education.Findings – Analysis of the data revealed that of the organisational factors, in particular, the availability of organisational facilities contributes positively to the amount of TPD (that is, in training programmes, and social networks). Furthermore, participation in social networks appeared to have a positive influence on the development of occupational expertise.Research limitations/implications – The study is cross‐sectional (all data have been collected at one point in time), and data have been gathered in one country, i.e. The Netherlands. It would be interesting to examine the proposed model in a longitudinal study, in order to address issues of causality. More research is also needed to explore the extent...