  This paper investigates the interactions between context and professional
development of physics instructors in a case study of two physics faculty. A
phenomenological-case study approach was used to analyze two physics faculty at
different institutions over a year and a half using three semi-structured
interviews each. The data enabled the identification of relevant context
elements; and the impact of these elements on physics faculty was explored by
adapting a framework that examines instructors' professional development. The
analysis shows that both case study subjects used their physics expertise and
growing understanding of their context to develop their physics teaching.
However, this growth was enacted differently given the nature of their context,
highlighting instructors' strengths in navigating their local context to
improve their physics teaching. The results show the subtleties of how context
has a salient, complex, and evolving role in moderating faculty's professional
development. By taking a faculty-centric approach, this paper broadens the
community's awareness of the ways physics instructors develop their physics
teaching. This work contributes to a relatively new lens by which the physics
community views, discusses, and supports the professional development of
physics faculty.
