Lived Experiences of High School Teachers' Professional Development Post-COVID-19 Pandemic in Rural Georgia: A Transcendental Phenomenology Study

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of high school teachers' professional development post-COVID-19 pandemic in rural Georgia, U.S.A. The theories guiding the research are Piaget's theory of disequilibration, addressing how one accommodates and assimilates to adapt to change, and Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance, explaining how one adapts, assimilates, and accommodates to avoid disharmony. The study's central question is, what are high school teachers' perceptions on the practical or academic professional development they received post-COVID-19 pandemic in rural Georgia, United States, used to promote leadership, teaching mastery, or pedagogical practices? This study utilized a transcendental phenomenology design. The research included 16 participants. Three participants withdrew from the study. The participants were recruited from 16 school districts in Georgia's north, central, and south regions; two districts withdrew due to hurricanes Helene and Milton, with a total pool of 851 participants. The study was triangulated using interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires to describe the lived experiences of high school teachers post-COVID-19 pandemic on teacher professional development in rural Georgia. Four themes (classroom management, smart learning environments, culture practice, and college and career readiness programs) and ten subthemes (attendance, applied behavior analysis, social-emotional intelligence training, problematic internet use, information communication technology, technological pedagogical content knowledge, scaffolding, modeling, the individuals with disabilities Education Act, formative assessments) were produced from data integration to provide a synergetic view of the participants’ experiences.