Facilitators as actors: exploring power, knowledge and subjectivity in a teacher professional development programme

Numerous studies have explored the purposes, pedagogical practices and claimed added value of teacher professional development programmes. The authors understand these as the programmes’ underlying rationalities. However, few studies compare these rationalities, as articulated in guiding documents, with those held by the facilitators who implement them. Given facilitators’ key roles, failing to compare the rationalities found in guiding documents with those held by them may lead to gaps between intentions and outcomes. Moreover, facilitators can offer insights not captured in documents. Accordingly, neglecting their perspectives risks missing opportunities for improvement. This study addresses this gap by using post-foundational discourse analysis and taking inspiration from Michel Foucault. The authors analysed documents and conducted semi-structured interviews with all facilitators of a programme called ARPA. Their findings reveal both alignments and discrepancies. They conclude that tensions between facilitators and documents provide valuable opportunities for professional development programmes, as facilitators actively critique and reshape educational rationalities.