direction”. Many teachers also emphasized the need for continuous support from the
CPD providers,“So the changes do not fall back”.
A central feature in QUEST was the expectation that the teachers participating in
course modules/network meetings should share new input with the local PLC and
should accept extra responsibility for implementing local activities that used the
new tools and approaches. Some of the reflections about disseminating ideas in the
local PLC revealed challenges, e.g., some teachers referred to“reluctant col-
leagues”. But in the schools where two or more colleagues typically shared this
role, and planned active meetings for their colleagues, there was evidence that those
teachers who partook in the QUEST modules were able to contributepositivelyto
collective agency (Bandura 1997 ). Active meetings could be about trying out some
hands-on activities or equipment in the lab or outside in the school’s surroundings,
or joint planning of teaching, or working collaboratively to illustrate learning
progression on a big poster or a smart board. Another point that was raised in the
reflections was that it seemed that the role of resource-teacher for colleagues was a
challenge if the trained teachers did not have the support of the school
leadership. School leaders were seen to be quite important for the local develop-
ment of a collaborative culture. Those who took a visible and active role in PLC
meetings, etc., and were prepared to delegate leadership tasks and support teacher
initiatives, giving staff some degree of autonomy, as illustrated in the case in the
next section, were considered most helpful.
The last theme of political reforms deserves a long discussion in itself, but here
there is only space to cover a few key points. First of all, participants in QUEST
found that the top-down political reforms disturbed the gradual process in the
longitudinal CPD project. For some teachers this “disturbance” was positive
because the national reforms recognized the importance of teacher collaboration.
For example, school leaders were now required to call PLC meetings and this meant
that more staff were likely to attend meetings on a regular basis. Many teachers,
however, felt a huge lack of motivation following the introduction of more
top-down management. In general, the most positive views following the reforms
came from teachers who experienced school leaders who listened to and supported
teacher suggestions for how best to implement the new top-down political
initiatives.
21.5 One Teacher’s Journey Through QUEST
The differences infindings between schools highlight the important role school
contextual factors can play in relation to the long-term effect of CPD. These
findings also highlighted the need for in-depth knowledge at a school level about
development over time and in individual teacher’s classrooms, as recognized by
van Driel et al. ( 2012 ) and Luft and Hewson ( 2014 ). A condensation of the
reflections and new enactments of one of the case teachers is a useful way to
illustrate how this can work in practice. In this case, the teacher in focus had 4 years
21 A QUEST for Sustainable Continuing Professional Development 323