Abstract

This paper employs narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) as the methodology to uncover a school principal’s experiences and perceptions related to ELL teacher professional development. It recognizes educators’ personal practical knowledge as the greatest driving force in their professional growth. Through reflecting on her professional development experiences and narrating her personal practical knowledge in action, this study has provided some practical considerations in designing and enacting ELL teacher professional development. More often than not, teacher professional development focuses on the “best practices” and “research-based programs,” but provides little input from the recipients about their experiences and perspectives. This study strives to break this prevalent model of professional development by gearing towards how an educator/administrator perceives the problems in teacher professional development for ELLs and how to best address their problems. It is hopeful that this study will shed important light on how to construct positive professional development that benefits teachers and ELL students both theoretically and practically.

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