Exploring professional development opportunities for teachers in CLIL/bilingual education

Abstract

Continual professional development (CPD) is essential for teachers to meet the professional and psychological challenge which CLIL/bilingual education brings. The provision and nature of CPD is often supported by official national programmes. Such has been the case in Portugal with the PEBI programme. However, this as yet only covers approximately 7% of official schools which does not represent the full extent of CLIL implementation in the country. Teachers and schools have sought alternatives for developing CLIL/bilingual education which deserve closer attention for the strategies used, resources produced and even their understanding of the concept of CLIL itself. This exploratory study investigates professional development opportunities that teachers have identified and used to implement CLIL in schools. It highlights two resources used for professional development: Erasmus+ funded programmes (staff mobility and school projects) and the role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Data presented pertains to the situation in Portugal and was collected from web-based research utilizing the Erasmus+ database for the period of 2016-2021 as well as the Conselho Científico-Pedagógico da Formação Contínua (CCPFP) on accredited teacher development courses related to CLIL in Portugal. By discussing the merits and limitations of these resources it is hoped that these cases may inspire teachers, researchers and policy makers in other contexts to develop sustainable professional development practices.