What stops teachers from participating in professional development? An empirical study of deterrent factors for secondary school teachers in Germany

Recent research on teachers' professional development has primarily focused on the uptake of activities and the characteristics of the participants. However, which teachers do not participate in professional development (PD) and what deters them from participation remains underresearched. The present study aims to describe non-participants based on demographic and occupational characteristics and to analyse deterrents using data from the 2012 German National Assessment Study. The sample includes more than 2400 German secondary school teachers. Five factors of deterrence to participation were identified: Disengagement, Lack of Quality, Family constraints, Costs and Work constraints. Descriptive analysis shows that deterrents vary among teachers. The factors Work and Quality are the most important deterrents. Furthermore, there is astatistically significantly relationship between the factors Disengagement and Quality and teachers not taking part in PD activities. The results indicate that alow interest in PD and aperceived lack of quality of PD courses may influence the decision to participate.