Supranational organisations (OECD and EU) and national organisations (The Teaching Council, Department of Education and Skills) promote continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers in Ireland so that they can upskill for this new knowledge age. CPD is an integral aspect of life long learning for teachers and can enhance their knowledge, skills and competences as well as re-energising teachers and sustaining them in carrying on their work because teaching is a demanding profession, where teachers frequently experience burn out, especially teachers working in disadvantaged areas (Coolahan 2003). There has been a paucity of research on the actual outcomes of CPD. The rationale for this research arises from my role as a director of an online Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning (MATL) (Level 9 National Framework of Qualifications) (Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) 2012) for the past four years. I wish to discover whether and how this two year programme contributed to graduates’ professional development. The MATL was delivered online to teachers (n=100) teaching in national and international contexts such as Ireland, UAE, South Korea, Japan, China, Egypt, Morocco and Mauritius. The MATL programme is coming to an end and I wish to discover what the intrinic and extrinsic benefits of the programme were.

The rationale for the research is to add to our knowledge about the professional development of teachers and how a programme delivered online impacted on them. In Ireland, The Teaching Council entered into a consultation process with teachers regarding CPD (The Teaching Council 2016)(The Teaching Council 2015) and is bringing in mandatory (CPD) for teachers in 2020. There are many different types of CPD such as short one or two day courses; the type of CPD that this study is researching is a formal, taught, and accredited master’s degree for post-graduate, certified, experienced teachers, delivered over a two to two and a half year period. Historically, Irish teachers received an incremental increase in salary to do a Master’s programme but this no longer exists. Therefore, this research will pin point exactly what benefits teachers gained in terms of professional development. The theoretical framework underpinning the study draws from literature that pertains to professionalism in particular the work of Sexton (2007) who argues that professionalism has many facets including autonomy, trust, respect, ethical practice and is associated with multiple attributes (Sexton 2007). Seery highlights the characteristics that teachers bring to the profession such as a ‘keen sense of the ethical and moral life’ (p. 190) and argues that Ireland always had a very distinctive culture of education (Seery 2008). Two models of professional development are posited: democratic professionalism (grass roots – coming from teachers) and managerial professionalism (top down model driven by the state and policy) (Day & Sachs 2004). The concept of globalisation is often associated with drivers of education change, however, Collinson et al (2009 p.5) suggested that in terms of CPD the concept of glocalisation is more accurate, described as: a blending of global and local, or an adaptation of the global with a distinct local twist that represents a transformation (e.g., incorporating local values, norms, culture, materials). It is captured in the vernacular phrase, ‘Think globally, act locally’. In education, most curricula are a blend because they share universal concepts, but teachers and textbooks probably emphasise local values, culture, examples, and problems (Collinson et al. 2009). Teacher agency refers to the extent to which a person has the freedom to act in a particular way, or a person's 'capacity for willed voluntary action' (Scott and Marshall, 2009). Teachers are not completely free, nor are they completley determined by structure (Archer, 2002).

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