Professional Development Policy in a Small Rural Education System

The paper describes the professional development policy of a small but geographically widespread education system in New South Wales. The policy has particular features. Notably it allows control of the content of staff development at three levels — the system, the school and the individual. The policy identifies a rationale and an aim, a set of assumptions, principles of procedure and characteristics of a healthy professional learning environment. These are used as guides for officers of the system in their choice of implementation models and in the processes they use. The process of implementation of the policy is described, including administrative structures and some models of inservice. Some similarities are commented on between the policy and Stenhouse's process model of curriculum development. Suggestions are made regarding the implementation of the Scott report in New South Wales. The conceptual framework of policy analysts, Hogwood and Gunn (1984), was particularly useful in the analysis.