Omani English as a Foreign Language Teachers’ Views about Participatory Professional Development

This paper reports the findings of a study that develops a participatory model for TESOL teachers’ continuous professional development (CPD) in Oman. This study used an action research methodology and data were collected using an online discussion group, semi-structured and focus group interviews with participant teachers. The findings indicated that the centralised top-down nature of the current CPD system seems to negatively affect the success of CPD in the in-service TESOL context in Oman. The evaluation of the participatory model of CPD adopted in this study showed that this model has a positive impact on participant teachers’ CPD and three aspects of change were noticed: teachers’ beliefs, their practices about CPD, and change in students (e.g., their reading habits). The data showed that the participatory model of CPD enabled teachers to make decisions regarding their CPD and encouraged them to play the role of critical reflective practitioners as well as preparing them as future transformative intellectuals. Keywords: CPD, in-service courses, TESOL, teacher professional development, participatory professional development.