Professional Development as a Negotiated Practice: Usability, Constraints, and Teacher Navigation in China

Background: This study examines how primary school teachers perceive, experience, and navigate professional development (PD) under everyday organisational constraints in an urban public primary school in southwest China. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight teachers and supplemented by non-participant observations of school-based learning routines and teachers’ engagement with online PD modules. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, informed by an integrated framework (Job Demands–Resources, self-determination theory, and practice-based teacher learning). Three themes emerged. (1) Teachers judged PD through a “usability” standard, valuing actionable strategies that fit classroom realities and are feasible to implement. (2) Time scarcity and administrative encroachment fragmented PD and often shifted participation toward completion-oriented compliance, especially in standardised online modules. (3) Teachers navigated constraints through selective engagement, mentoring and collegial support as compensatory pathways, and conditional adoption of digital/AI tools when these reduced workload and aligned with instructional needs; observed AI use was generally low and uneven. PD is a negotiated practice shaped by PD design, organisational conditions, and teachers’ adaptive strategies, highlighting the need to protect learning time, strengthen mentoring, align evaluation with PD expectations, and ensure technology-related PD is feasible.