Six teachers’ experiences of professional learning in vocabulary instruction in English-medium schools in Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Abstract

High-quality professional learning for teachers and improved literacy outcomes for children are national priorities in Wales. Despite this, limited research has explored how teachers experience sustained professional learning focused on vocabulary instruction and how such experiences shape their self-efficacy and professional agency within differing school and leadership contexts. This study adopts an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach to explore how teachers make sense of their engagement in a professional learning programme on vocabulary instruction and how these experiences relate to the sources of their self-efficacy. While situated within Wales's linguistically diverse educational landscape, including Welsh-medium, English-medium and bilingual settings, the study focuses specifically on English-medium schools and literacy practices within this context. Questionnaire data were generated from 55 primary and secondary practitioners across Swansea, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, providing initial insights into perspectives and practices relating to vocabulary instruction. Findings identified time constraints alongside limited knowledge and expertise as key barriers to effective practice. The primary qualitative data were generated through semi-structured interviews with six teachers who participated in the professional learning programme. Interviews were conducted immediately following the programme, with four participants interviewed again one year later, enabling exploration of how knowledge, confidence and practice developed over time. Findings indicate that sustained professional learning supported teachers’ developing confidence, pedagogical understanding and commitment to vocabulary instruction while also revealing persistent tensions associated with research engagement, including workload pressures, time constraints and the challenges of translating research into practice. Drawing on Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, participants’ accounts highlighted the importance of mastery experiences, verbal persuasion and collective efficacy in shaping beliefs about capability. These processes contributed to the development of teacher agency, understood as relational and contextually situated, as teachers enacted and shared research-informed practices within the enabling and constraining conditions of their schools. The study therefore conceptualises sustained professional learning as fertile ground for the development of teacher agency, while demonstrating that such agency remains contingent upon professional and organisational conditions that enable research-informed practice to flourish. Although focused on English-medium settings, the findings highlight the need for further research examining vocabulary instruction across bilingual and multilingual educational contexts in Wales.