Abstract:

Educational reforms at a central and governmental level have great impact on the realization of the stipulated educational goals at schools. Teachers need to be aware of these national reforms and receive support in their professional development of their everyday work. From the national level, the state authorities work out strategies and laws which then the local authorities are to apply at the regional level, sometimes in terms of professional development activities for teachers. At the same time, teachers are to deal with an overwhelming number of new issues and local school authorities are to work out guidelines and effective organization in order to have successful continuous professional training for teachers.

Teachers’ active engagement in professional development activities promotes a growth of teachers’ mindset and encourages them to build their practice as more efficient and sustainable. The present article will focus on the organization and the structure of continuous professional development in two regions of Latvia and Sweden. The research questions are the following: What are the typical ways of organizing professional training in a region in Latvia and in Sweden? What are the major similarities and differences? What are the factors that are influential in the organization at the regional level?

The study presents the legislation of and framework for teachers’ professional training. In this way, the results will show the cases of good practice and how to build teacher professional development practice to be more sustainable which are valuable and useful for the international readership.

Keywords:

Organization of professional training, educational change, Latvian and Swedish contexts.