CONTINUING TEACHER EDUCATION AS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: MEANINGS, CONDITIONS AND TENSIONS IN LITERACY TEACHING

Abstract

This article examines the meanings literacy teachers attribute to continuing in-service teacher education and their relationship with teacher professional development. It draws on a qualitative case study conducted in a municipal public education system in the state of Bahia, Brazil, within an institutional teacher education policy. Participants included six literacy teachers working in Grades 1–3 of elementary school, two teacher educators, and one coordinator of the initiative. Data were generated between 2025 and 2026 through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document analysis and were examined using Content Analysis and source triangulation. Four interrelated dimensions emerged: institutionally provided time for study and professional confidence; reconstruction of teaching practice and professional identity; professional induction, belonging, and learning within the school system; and institutional, material, and territorial conditions of professional development. The study concludes that teacher professional development is neither an automatic outcome of participation in training activities nor solely an individual responsibility; rather, it is a situated and relational process constituted through the interplay of experience, knowledge, reflection, professional relationships, and institutional working conditions.