Teaching is viewed as a complex activity and teachers are required to make a commitment to improving their instructional practices by engaging in professional development. Researchers acknowledge teacher professional development is not confined to the workshop but involves the transfer of learning from the workshop to the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences and perspectives of fifteen teachers from five schools engaged in a professional development programme. Professional development is contextually bound in school culture and context and has a direct link for teachers’ initiation and implementation of new innovations. This frames the broader context of this study. A multi-site case study used five phases of data collection and analyses, consisting of the administration of a quantitative questionnaire followed by in-depth, qualitative, semi-structured interviews to gain a better understanding of this complex area of educational change. The findings of this study outline the personal experiences of teachers changing their practices. They include the concerns and emotions teachers experience during educational change, the role of relationships in peer teams and the influence of teacher agency. Two areas of school culture emerged from this study: (a) the role of the school leader and (b) the collaborative cultures in a school.