Abstract

Teacher development (TD) is broadly understood as the range of activities that encourage the formation of participative, situated, and shared practices among teachers and their communities. In the last 30 years in TESOL, teacher development programs (TDPs) have tended to shift from traditional top‐down initiatives to small‐scale programs with a focus on collaboration, reflection, teachers' research and the use of ICT. Sociocultural perspectives—together with identity and critical theoretical underpinnings—have contributed to these shifts. Examples of innovation in TDPs comprise a wide range of initiatives characterized by teachers' ownership, high levels of flexibility, and appreciation of context. Increasing criticism towards traditional TDPs asserts that traditional approaches failed to sustain positive changes in teaching practices. Thus, a closer scrutiny of TDPs is needed to identify their impact on teachers' practices and the factors that influence the sustainability of TDPs over time.