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In this study of 211 teacher work samples derived from a professional development programme, teachers' conceptualisations of student inquiry were revealed by examining the nature of perceived outcomes and the role of critical thinking that animated teachers' student inquiries collected over nine years. Using a schema adapted from the literature, this paper presents a taxonomy of inquiry outcomes as engagement, as a means to develop content and skills, and as an end in itself. Results show that teachers utilised inquiry predominantly as a means to support student learning of content knowledge and skills. Descriptions of exemplar projects and three representative case study portraits reveal both how teachers perceived inquiry outcomes and the nature of student thinking. Researchers concluded that inquiry outcomes are a result of teachers' choices, particularly in relation to assessment practices. Moreover, inquiry-as-ends more consistently leveraged support for critical thinking than other outcomes. Professional development should attend to teachers' articulation of their purposes for inquiry to better enable teachers to develop inquiry activities that promote students' critical thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to reports discussed within the issue is presented, including the article "Engaging in and engaging with research: teacher inquiry and development," by E. Hall, and the article by "Teacher training by alternating classroom work and work analysis: from the perspective of collective action theory," by S. Bertone et al.

This paper investigates the early working careers of graduates from teacher education using Norwegian register data. The longitudinal data follows the individuals up to 12 years after graduation. The analysis is on net attrition since mobility both out of and into teacher positions is taken into account. The findings reveal a gradual net attrition from teacher positions of about 1.3 percentage points yearly, starting 1–3 years after graduation. Some of the attrition is to leadership positions in education, but the main attrition is to jobs outside education. The attrition is mainly among males and graduates with relatively high measured academic ability, and it differs greatly across teacher education types. The differences in the probability of teaching related to gender and academic ability are low shortly after graduation, but increase over time. Teacher education graduates for secondary schooling work as teachers to the lowest degree. These systematic patterns are related to both the demand and supply side of the teacher labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues the competing ways in which continuing professional development (CPD) is currently practised in schooling settings in England is a product of the complex social conditions within which teachers work and learn, and teachers’ efforts to make sense of these conditions. Specifically, the paper draws upon research into the teacher learning practices, and conditions of practice, of a group of 18 teachers from one inner-city comprehensive secondary school in the British Midlands. To make sense of competing approaches to CPD within the school, the paper analyses these teachers’ experiences in light of Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of social practices as contested. The research reveals competing approaches to teacher CPD in relation to the management of teachers’ CPD, the focus upon improving test scores and the modes of learning in which teachers participate. The paper shows how conflicting pressures and demands in the context within which teachers work, and teachers’ responses to these demands, contribute to contested practices in and across these domains, both arising from and resulting in what is described as a ‘hybridised’ habitus. The research gestures towards the need to cultivate conditions conducive to more educationally oriented, critical, situated and collaborative CPD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by Chi-hung Ng on the nature of career goals in relation to professional learning by teachers, another by Cheryl Craig on one teacher's experiences of professional development over a 10-year period as well as a report by Ali Sahin on an exploration of the professional status of elementary teaching in Turkey.

The connection between teacher inquiry, professional development and school improvement was recognised 30 years ago by Lawrence Stenhouse. Stenhouse contributed many valuable insights into the role of practitioner enquiry in creating and utilising knowledge about teaching and learning, much of which is still to be applied systematically in teacher education and professional development. This paper draws on the Learning to Learn Phase 3 Evaluation, a three-year-action research project in which teachers in primary and secondary schools across the UK completed three cycles of practitioner inquiry to explore tools, pedagogies and other innovations which would promote dispositions of 'learning to learn' (L2L). The paper focuses on identifying those aspects of being involved in L2L that support teachers' learning and the way that the teachers themselves understand the impact on their professional development. Data from over 60 semi-structured interviews undertaken over the three years of the project, the case study reports compiled by teachers at the end of each year of the project and collaborative workshops involving teachers and university researchers as co-inquirers are used to explore teachers' learning. Qualitative methods are used to develop a thematic analysis of the interviews, case studies and the teachers' understanding of the relationships between inquiry, research and continuing professional development (CPD) in order to identify categories and generate key concepts that can inform a theoretical understanding of the impact of professional inquiry on teachers' learning. The findings contribute to our understanding of the role of inquiry and research in schools in supporting professional learning by suggesting how tools and models of working are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now more than 10 years after the publication of the monograph,The Activist Teaching Profession,which, at the time, could be described as a call to action for the teaching profession. I reflect here on how far has the profession progressed in responding to that call to action. The idea of a ‘call to action’ could be seen to born out of industrial rather than professional discourses: 10 years ago different factors were shaping teachers’ professional practice and identity and a call to action was a metaphor and a strategy to mobilize teachers. In this paper, I identify the factors that are still influencing and shaping the teaching profession and argue that different times require different responses and that current thinking and debates around teacher professionalism circulate around professional learning. In this paper, I argue that the time for an industrial approach to the teaching profession has passed. I make the case for systems, schools and teachers to be more research active with teachers’ practices validated and supported through research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite continuing interest in teacher reflection and an extensive body of research on peer assessment, the interaction between these areas has not been sufficiently investigated. This study on reflection and peer feedback is part of an ongoing action research addressing the design and pedagogical model of a theoretically oriented teacher training course. The course comprised face-to-face lessons followed by written reflections of the student-teachers concerning their learning experiences. These reflections were presented for peer feedback - thereby initiating a community of reflecting peers ('co-reflection') - and were additionally subjected to instructor feedback under two conditions (full vs. diluted). Student-teachers' perception of their professional development that resulted from these co-reflecting communities were quantitatively evaluated (using a self-reported questionnaire) over a three-year period. An enhanced positive effect over the three-year period was found - regardless of the instructor feedback condition - as well as significant differences between parallel groups (higher for science vs. mathematics student-teachers). These are described in the first part of the paper, followed by an in-depth case study analysis in the second section. The case studies reported inclusive analysis of the students' written reflections and feedback. It provides an insight into the processes of co-reflection, identifies changes over time in the quality of reflections and feedback, as well as in the personal, professional and social development of the student-teachers, attempting to identify the mechanisms leading to these changes. Examples are cited to illustrate the ways in which the students developed and what activated their motivation for development. The case studies reveal two developmental models, one of external orientation and the other internal. These are characterized by a willing receiver and willing donor, respectively. The importance of a 'maturity interval', when the student is 'ripe' for developmental change, was also demonstrated. Offering an appropriate trigger at this mature point may stimulate crucial development. Teacher development is further interpreted in terms of interpersonal variables. The current paper may encourage teacher educators and student-teachers themselves to incorporate co-reflecting in their course planning and community planning. Ways may be designed to train student-teachers to offer and use feedback effectively. For feedback to be valuable, it should be reinforcing, challenging, thorough and sincere, radiate faith, and be of a friendly nature - it should be non-insulting and non-judgemental. They may be used for in-text as well as summary remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I analyse non-Dalit teachers' outlooks by positioning them within a culturally complex caste system, considering its influence on Dalits' education. Nepalese society is ruled by a caste system, where non-Dalits–Brahmins and Kshatriya are considered pure and powerful, and Dalits are viewed as impure and powerless. This multi-dynamic caste system promotes social truths that are accompanied by educational prosperity for non-Dalits and deprivation for Dalits. This study involves six teachers in in-depth interviews, twenty-four students in focus group discussion, twenty-four students in video elicitation and a total of thirty-nine teachers and students in observation. The work of Amartya Sen, Pierre Bourdieu, Raewyn Connell, and Nepalese scholars are key to the theoretical framing of this research. The study found that non-Dalit teachers are not critically reflexive of their caste-based prejudiced attitude and dispositions, which eventually reproduces unjust school education. Instead of blaming teachers, the study concludes that professional development did not offer opportunities for teachers to be critically reflexive of their teaching habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the social side of pre-service teacher education and draws on social network analysis to explore the relation between the social capital of pre-service teachers and their academic and professional success. An online survey was applied to a sample of 321 students enrolled full time either in Preschool Education or Primary Education programmes at the Ramon Llull University-FPCEE Blanquerna in Catalonia, Spain. The instrument consisted of a combination of social network questions and rating scale attributes. Findings allow us to understand the relationship between aspects of the cohort’s social network and key development constructs and demonstrate the importance of considering informal interactions within the programme to improve the performance of pre-service teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals moving from job to job are argued as a feature of reflexive modernity. This trend is reflected in the increasing number and diversity of 'career changers' or 'second career teachers' recruited to teaching. Having recruited teachers, retaining them in the profession is recognised as a considerable challenge. In terms of retention, the induction year and the role of the NQT (Newly Qualified Teacher) mentor are increasingly seen as significant in meeting this challenge. The research focus on the experience of career changers in teaching has largely been on those moving into the secondary phase. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the experiences of three primary school NQT career changers from a PGCE primary programme at a university in England. It adds to the considerable literature on how NQTs generally come to identify with and through the culture of the school. The experiences of the participants' first year of teaching in their respective primary schools are explored through a constructive grounded theory methodology. It recounts their reality in line with the view that if human beings define situations as real they are real in their consequences. The data are argued as local and detailed rather than representing a universal truth, a partial reality which can be drawn upon to illuminate the bigger picture for primary career changers. Analysis, which was initially inductive draws on notions from Lave and Wenger's and Wenger's work on communities of practice 'legitimate peripheral participation' and 'leverage' and their significance for job satisfaction in the NQT year. The research found that 'being managed' emerged as the key concern for the NQTs. In addition, their positioning in relation to their previous work experience was significant in achieving job satisfaction. Those who saw themselves as experienced newcomers and wished their previous work experience to be acknowledged found that it was variably capitalised upon in primary teaching. There is also a suggestion here that being 'different' in this paper - male or gay teachers was problematic. The findings have implications for teacher trainers and NQT mentors in that it offers a perspective on the range of experiences career changer NQTs bring with them to teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, drawing on the voice of beginning teachers, seeks to illuminate their experiences of building professional relationships as they become part of the teaching profession. A networking perspective was taken to expose and explore the use of others during the first three years of a teacher's workplace experience. Three case studies, set within a wider sample of 11 secondary school science teachers leaving one UK university's PostGraduate Certificate in Education, were studied. The project set out to determine the nature of the networks used by teachers in terms of both how they were being used for their own professional development and perceptions of how they were being used by others in school. Affordances and barriers to networking were explored using notions of identity formation through social participation. The focus of the paper is on how the teachers used others to help shape their sense of belonging to this, their new workplace. The paper develops ideas from network theories to argue that membership of the communities are a subset of the professional inter-relationships teachers utilise for their professional development. During their first year of teaching, eight teachers were interviewed, completing 13 semi-structured interviews. This was supplemented in Year 2 by a questionnaire survey of their experiences. In the third year of the programme, 11 teachers (including the original sample of eight) were surveyed using a network mapping tool in which they represented their communications with people, groups and resources. Finally, three of the teachers (common to both samples) were then interviewed specifically about their networking practices and experiences using the generation of their network map as a stimulated recall focus. The implications of the analysis of these accounts are that these beginning teachers did not perceive of themselves wholly as novices and that their personal aspirations to increase participation in practical science, develop a career or work for pupils holistically did not always sit comfortably with the school communities into which they were being accommodated. While highlighting the importance of trust and respect in establishing relationships, these teachers' accounts highlight the importance of finding 'peers' from whom they can find support and with whom they can reflect and potentially collaborate towards developing practice. They also raise questions about who these 'peers' might be and where they might be found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the Teachers Network Leadership Institute (TNLI), an initiative designed to bring the voice of teachers into the educational policy arena through teacher action research. We view teachers’ research on teaching and on school processes as an important means through which to expose the various sources of tension between policy and teaching, as well as to elucidate the impact of education policies on teachers’ practice. For the purposes of this paper, four teacher studies were selected as representative of the quality of work that the TNLI teachers are producing and as referents for our discussion of the unseen and public or ‘bright’ sides of teacher research. In addition, we have used surveys, questionnaires and interviews with TNLI participants to assess the impact of TNLI on their teaching, their students, their schools and districts, as well as on teachers’ knowledge of policy‐making. We find that teachers sharing research within teacher networks like TNLI constitutes a significant opportunity for professional development and can help teachers to build bridges across classrooms and schools, to the academy and to the larger policy community by opening up understandings of practice. The negotiation of meaning that ensues can make transparent the ways in which policy is translated into practice and it can highlight opportunities for policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, 'being the best' as a teacher has become less of a moral imperative based on a sense of integrity and trust, and more of a dictat from governments intent on imposing their performativity agendas on teachers in the name of raising standards. One consequence of the rise of the so-called school reform agenda is that there has been a demise of teacher renewal. Each of the papers in the present issue has addressed this paradox in one way or another. The present paper suggests that the models of teacher development adopted by policy-makers do not adequately address teachers' learning needs over a career or contribute to enhancing motivation and commitment essential to raising standards in the classroom. It concludes by suggesting that universities themselves have a moral commitment to develop further new kinds of sustained knowledge, creating roles with schools and teachers through which teachers' active professionalism will be enriched. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a conjunction between the learning space of educational edge community (EEC) and the Deleuzeguattarian thought regarding the nature of teachers’becoming. It attends to the emerging subjectivities of teachers/learners within an EEC, a nomadic, open, and smooth space of learning. It is suggested that autonomous learning processes that are enabled in nomadic spaces provide the freedom that is essential for the immanent growth of complexity that leads to creative becomings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article extends the literature on teachers’ career paths by attending to the experiences of educators when they were students in secondary classrooms. Grounded in the perspective that biography is central to teaching, we investigate undergraduate pre-service teachers’ educational experiences, views on teaching and learning, and professional plans. We draw upon life history interviews with 40 prospective teachers at three institutions across Pennsylvania, USA. We find that past educational experiences are intricately connected with career choice, intended professional path, and pedagogical focus. This paper identifies and discusses three forms of modeling – disciplinary, mentoring, and empowering – which influence pre-service teachers in powerful and enduring ways. These forms of modeling expand our understanding of teachers’ career intentions and apply the apprenticeship of observation to planned career paths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An extensive body of research has indicated the benefits of collaborative, contextualised and enquiry-based learning for teachers’ professional development and school improvement. Yet professional learning is also known to be constrained by a number of factors, including the organisational limitations of schools, conflicting cultural practices and wider political demands. Schools–university partnerships have been developed to overcome some of these difficulties by transcending particular school contexts and offering alternative theoretical and practical perspectives. The complex combination of motivations, backgrounds and working contexts in such partnership work calls for attention to the individual and collective learning experiences of those involved, including the ways in which school and university contexts are, or could be, effectively bridged. This paper focuses on understanding the learning experienced by a cohort of teachers and school leaders involved in a two-year schools–university partnership Master of Education (M.Ed.) course in England. A mixed group of 15 experienced primary and secondary teachers and school leaders reflected on their learning at five points of time during and shortly after completing their M.Ed. course. Qualitative analysis of the group’s interview responses and reflective writing led to the identification of six related aspects of personal and professional learning experience: being a learner; learning as part of professional practice; widening repertoire; changing as a learner; personal growth; and critically adaptive practice. The identification and visual representation of these aspects of experience emerging within the group offers useful insight into teachers’ perspectives on learning in school and university contexts and their experiences of progression over time. We conclude that more explicit and central attention to the professional and personal learning elements of schools–university partnerships can help to resolve some of the binary ‘theory–practice’ tensions that have been extensively discussed in relation to partnership programmes and teacher professional development. There is a need to acknowledge variation in teachers’ learning experiences within schools–university partnerships, bearing in mind the ongoing nature of this reflective process with each new group of school and university colleagues. Analysis of participants’ learning experiences in school and university contexts also draws attention to the wider structures, values and cultures that influence, and are influenced by, schools–university partnership work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a significant body of international research indicating that reading instruction does not consistently occur in the final years of primary schooling and progress drops-off as students move through the schooling system. This paper uses case study research to investigate the interactions and the self-perceptions of five literacy leaders, eight teachers of 10–12 year-old students and their principals in five New Zealand primary schools. The schools had been nominated as succeeding in teaching reading in the upper primary school by literacy experts. The article is part of a wider ongoing research project based on a substantial investigation of reading in the final years of primary schooling. All schools had a designated literacy leader who played a key role in supporting literacy development across the school. They were supporting teachers in further developing their knowledge of reading processes and strategies to improve instructional reading at the Year 7 and 8 levels. At all five schools the principals strongly supported the whole school ongoing professional development in reading. The literacy leaders played a significant role in supporting teachers and providing a cohesive alignment within their long-term, school-wide plan to improve reading achievement. Teacher knowledge of literacy processes was evident with teachers planning explicit instruction around text. Vocabulary knowledge and comprehension strategies were recognised as two key areas. School-wide assessment data and in-depth analysis of the implications of the results were discussed amongst staff. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Drawing on previous research that focused upon the formation and mediation of teacher professional identity, this paper develops a model for conceptualising teacher professional identity. Increasingly, technical-rational understandings of teachers' work and 'role' are privileged in policy and public discourse over more nuanced and holistic approaches that seek to understand teacher professional identity - what it is to 'be' a teacher. This article seeks to offer an alternative view, presenting the idea that an understanding of the processes by which teacher professional identity is formed and mediated is central to understanding the professional learning and development needs of teachers and advancing a richer, more transformative vision for education. I argue that instrumentalist notions of teachers' work embedded in neo-liberal educational agendas such as those currently being advanced in many western countries offer an impoverished view of the teaching profession and education more broadly, and suggest that the concept of teacher professional identity holds the potential to work as a practical tool for the teaching profession and those who work to support them in the development of a more generative educational agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines a group of secondary mathematics teachers who met 16 times to discuss video excerpts of their teaching. The explicit purpose of the meetings was to assist the teachers in preparing video for submission to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Analysis of meeting transcripts reveals that teachers engaged in intensive discussions about mathematical discourse. Specifically, the teachers investigated three discourse-related themes: techniques for facilitating discourse, contextual factors affecting discourse, and criteria for evaluating discourse. The meetings also supported the development of a professional community among participants as they collaboratively and substantively examined each other's practices. This research adds to our understanding of teacher professional development and provides particular insights about how preparing for National Board Certification can facilitate teacher learning and the development of professional teacher communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes up two important issues in the professional development of university teachers: the controversy surrounding reflective inquiry and its purported benefits for professional development and the lack of research on what teachers learn from reflective inquiry and how that affects and/or changes their professional practice. 1 Specifically, the article asks what is reflective engagement and to what uses do university faculty put reflective engagement over time? Drawing on data from a study of 20 faculty members of the National University of Ireland at University College Cork (UCC) who created a teaching portfolio to compete for an award for excellence in teaching, I first demonstrate empirically how a greater conscious awareness of the act of teaching is facilitated by the creation of a reflective teaching portfolio. Then, through brief case studies, I examine specific uses three UCC teachers made of insights from their portfolio reflections and how they redirected their practice because of what they discovered. Patterns of redirection suggest that professional development through reflective engagement results from a subtle interaction of personal, professional and institutional elements. I offer a refined definition of reflective engagement and its processes to contribute to current discussions about a needed, shared understanding of it to carry out research and I present a small set of vignettes to suggest potential hypotheses for future investigations of its effects and meaning in the professional lives of university teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current research indicates that new teachers want to be involved in school‐level decision‐making. Upon entering the profession, many novice teachers are surprised and disillusioned to find they have considerably less involvement and influence than expected. Based on strategies that have been developed, revised, and refined over a number of years in two teacher preparation programs in the eastern US, the current discussion proposes that teacher preparation programs incorporate training in school‐based management as a means to better prepare new teachers for the political realities of the profession. Intended for teacher educators, this paper describes how the research component common to most teacher education programs can be used as a venue to train teacher candidates in school‐based management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of how six experienced teachers, and two in particular, used portfolios to aid and chart steps in their own professional development. The key finding of the study was that the pattern of growth of professional knowledge conformed strikingly to the central features of the model proposed by the philosopher of science, Karl Popper, to account for the growth of scientific knowledge. That is, the use of portfolios assisted these teachers in identifying and formulating problems, in proposing tentative theories for their solution, in testing those theories against their experience of implementation, and in moving on to new problems of practice. The research therefore supports a Popperian structure for teacher professional development that coheres with a conception of teachers as self‐learners, or autonomous learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is, in part, a narrative account of a teacher educator's professional growth during a longitudinal case study of three primary science teachers, Katie, Jean and Ruth, as they made the transition from pre-service to inservice teaching. The study sought to explore ways in which the beginning teachers perceived and dealt with constraints to science teaching in the primary school, and how they changed and adapted the knowledge and skills developed at university in a practical situation. The findings of the study are organised by considering what we, the researchers, saw as three categories of challenge for these beginning primary science teachers, their initial alienation from the study of science, the differences between teaching science and teaching other subjects in the primary school, and the impact of novice status on science teaching. Working with participants to help them respond to these challenges became an occasion for our own development as science educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including school teachers' professional development, collaboration among the colleagues and teachers' relationship with their students.

This article examines how teachers' professional development motivations are affected by introjected regulation. A theoretical thematic analysis of teacher interview and survey open response data is conducted, exploring the extent to which teachers perceive themselves to be motivated by factors such as self-esteem and the regard of others. Findings suggest that introjected regulation represents a potent yet complex motivator for working teachers in respect to their professional development. Given the extensive use of introjected regulation in the performative environment in which many teachers work, these findings thus have real contemporary relevance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two inservice teachers participated in an online master’s course focused on multiple literacies. Their learning in the course is used as a means to explore what teachers need to know about multiple literacies in order to adapt their instruction in the context of prescribed reading programs. This essay presents how both teachers navigated their programmatic reading curriculum constraints and used their knowledge of multiple literacies and new literacies in their pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study addresses gaps in the research about the effect of professional development (PD) quality on effective instruction by taking a broad perspective when defining professional learning of teachers and by providing a theory-based explanation for effective instruction. Using a large-scale data set, Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013, the interrelationships between the quality of PD experience, professional communities at the school, and effective instruction were investigated. This theory testing study showed that the effect of PD events on effective instruction was stronger with the spillover effect of professional communities than with its sole effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to investigate preschool teacher-directors' sense of professional isolation, and discover the origins of their isolation at work and coping methods. The qualitative paradigm was the research method. The sample comprised 25 preschool teacher-directors in public municipal preschools, and the semi-structured interview method was used. The findings of this study extend our understanding of preschool teacher's sense of professional isolation, the origins of their isolation and the coping strategies they use to cope with their isolation such as professional support, professional cooperation, initiating educational projects, and professional development. The results demonstrate that professional strategies possessing aspects of shared leadership and pedagogy are the most effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of professional agency has recently been predominating in the field of teacher education. Despite this considerable attention given to exploring professional agency embedded in different contexts, there is still scarcity in research on teacher trainees' agentic roles. To this end, this study focuses on exploring the impact of practicum teaching on the construction of a professional agency of teacher trainees in three countries. Eleven teacher trainees (four from Turkey, three from Poland and four from Portugal) prepared reflection reports responding to 12 open-ended questions focusing on factors that contribute to or detract professional agency. The reflection reports displayed supporting and detracting factors about professional agency as self-related (responsibility, perseverance and sense of belonging to the profession), mentor-related (rapport, modelling, being a team member and decision-making, constructive feedback, allowing adequate space) and classroom and student-related issues (authenticity, role in students' eye, discipline and classroom management). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With data from 311 K-12 public school teachers working in the United States, we tested a predictive model of entrepreneurial behaviour that included demographic characteristics and career adaptability, and identified differences between highly and minimally entrepreneurial teachers on how and why they adapt their teaching practices. Statistical analysis identified education and career adaptability to predict entrepreneurial behaviour. Qualitative analysis revealed that highly entrepreneurial teachers considered their professional development and the broader school system, while teachers scoring low on entrepreneurial behaviour focused on behaviour management and coping with imposed regulations when adapting their practices. The discussion includes theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study takes a narrative perspective to examine teachers as writers and autobiographical creative writing as a way for promoting teachers’ professional development. In a creative writing group for Finnish primary and secondary school teachers, the teachers expressed themselves and explored their lives and identities through autobiographical creative writing. The aim of this study was to examine the stories the teachers tell about their relationship to writing and the goals they set for their professional and personal development in the writing group. Through thematic analysis, seven descriptive themes were found in teachers’ narratives of writing. Furthermore, based on the narrative analysis, a poem-like word image was composed. This study illustrates how literary methods diversify teachers’ narratives. The findings shed light on teachers as creative writers and emphasise the connection between writing and well-being. Creative writing groups can be beneficial for teachers’ professional development, identity work and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies of school-based mentoring practice have put their key focus on discussions of the professional growth of novice teachers rather than of their mentors. Mentoring practice, however, is also a platform from which mentors can build or enhance their professional competency and capitalize their leadership role as they interact with novice teachers and their colleagues. This is an area which deserves further research attention. Drawing on the concept of social capital, this small-scale qualitative study investigates how mentors can develop or revise their mentoring skills and knowledge while they engage in school-based mentoring practice. Semi-structured interviews and documents were collected from 31 mentors from primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong from 2014 to 2015. Findings of this study firstly show that both bonding social capital and bridging social capital can help mentors develop their mentoring knowledge in different ways. Secondly, bridging social capital can help mentors act as boundary brokers who develop transformative learning by interacting with outside experts. Providing more off-site or cluster-based mentor training programs and mentoring partnership schemes with outside experts could be the way forward to maximize the professional competency of mentors aiming at improving school capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries experience a high percentage of teachers who leave the profession before retirement. Most of the explanations, such as teacher burnout, adopt a pathogenic point of view which perceives attrition as a negative work outcome. In contrast, the qualitative project that this article is based on, which characterizes the career decision-making processes of 34 Israeli teachers, adopts a salutogenic perspective. This view allows for approaching attrition as a career decision which reflects the meaning teachers attach to their work. Drawing on a model which identifies three orientations toward work (job, calling and career), this article describes career stories of teachers who left teaching in order to illustrate how their work orientation shaped their decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the grounded theory approach (GTA) to investigate the value and characteristics of teacher observations, when used to understand student learning. Earlier studies have analysed the act of observation, defining it as a combination of joint observation and interpretation activities. By contrast, this analysis of 28 primary school teachers in remote areas of Vietnam reveals that the act of observation is mediated by underlying values. This study develops a discussion about the way in which the inherent ‘compliance-with-a-plan’ value restricts teachers’ ability to develop knowledge, as proposed in the literature, while the value of ‘exploration’ encourages teachers to develop a broader interpretation of classroom interactions. Figures and tables illustrate these GTA-based results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation has been a growing concern in teacher professional development practices. The issue of how teacher evaluation can help authentic professional development is important in that teachers only learn what is real, useful and valuable to them. Based on our reflections on current professional development in Taiwan, this article challenges the dominant evaluation-led approach to professional development, in which much attention and energy of policy-makers and educators is devoted to establishing extensive programmes and standards that might not be relevant to teachers’ concerns. We draw upon Habermas’ notion of system and lifeworld to sense-make and to theorise why it can be difficult for teachers to engage the entirety of their personhood with a policy agenda of pursuing system integration and efficiency whereby teachers’ learning actions become strategic. We argue for considering teacher development from an alternative, lifeworld perspective in which teachers and teachers’ subjectivities in striving to achieve what matters and makes sense to them are placed centre stage. Although the evaluation mechanism plays a role in avoiding the devolution of professional development into mere subjectivism, it is reductive to treat teacher professional development not only as distinct but also as requiring evaluation items and overlooking the importance of maintaining teacher development as a tacit, authentic process of knowing. We finally juxtapose the two approaches and their contrasting characteristics and describe implications for planning teacher professional development so that policy-makers and educators can reflect on their mindsets and implementation and modify their programme planning and strategies accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reflective practice has potentially positive effects on an organization’s capacity to focus on student learning and teaching practices. In an effort to comply with policy and provide teachers with opportunities to reflect on their practice, districts, schools, and teachers have turned to various models that feature collaborative experiences. One such model is the Critical Friends Group (CFG), focusing on the improvement of practice and learning experiences for children, using protocol-driven structured conversations. This article examines the mechanisms that support and sustain reflective practice within a community of practice and utilizes Wenger’s three dimensions of practice – mutual engagement, joint enterprise, and shared repertoire. The study followed a CFG in an elementary school using ethnographic case study methods to conduct a close examination of CFG meetings, protocol use, and analysis of teacher interviews. The propensity to ‘look out’ at school-wide issues vs. looking in at classroom practices, perceptions about feedback on classroom practice, and using protocols to guide conversation emerged from the data as prominent mechanisms in communities of practice. CFG facilitators and coaches, as well as participants must be explicit about the purposes of their work and protocol use alone does not ensure a focus on student learning and teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The use of teacher peer groups is a prevalent strategy for school-based professional development and instructional improvement. Facilitation of such groups is an increasingly vital dimension of teacher leadership as a component of school improvement efforts. Drawing on a qualitative study of facilitation of teacher peer groups, the article investigates how teacher leaders integrate experiences from different domains of life in constructing a unique facilitator identity. Focusing on portraits of three teacher leaders, it demonstrates how teachers relate experiences outside of teaching, including academic experiences, other professional experiences, and social experiences, to the skills and orientation necessary for effective facilitation. The article argues for attention to reflexive practices of identity formation in the preparation of teacher leaders as facilitators and in the ongoing development of teacher leaders who already function as facilitators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on workplace aggression by teachers working in teams, this study explored its components, its targets, and its contextual determinants. Data were collected through three observations at different schools and at different times on 29 math, homeroom, language, and science studies teams. Qualitative analysis found the components of team teachers’ aggression to include obstructionist behaviors and expressions of hostility to colleagues. Determinants of the aggression such as injustice and sense of workload were identified. Theoretical and practical implications for the educational system and educational research are suggested. Principals are strongly encouraged to establish a school environment that promotes justice and reduces work overload. Educational leaders should create workshops for teachers coping with the negative effects of aggression and implement dispute resolution systems. New directions for research on teachers’ role in preventing aggression are offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study used semi-structured in-depth interviews to explore empowerment patterns among teachers who hold leadership positions in school. Our qualitative analysis presents a hierarchical ladder with three types of empowerment amongst these teachers, ranging from limited empowerment through rewarding empowerment to change-enhancing empowerment. The level of empowerment seems to be related to the leadership position which the teachers hold and to their perception of the position. Our results contribute to the theoretical understanding of empowerment as a complex construct that affects the career characteristics of the teacher, ranging from limited impact of the leadership position to a powerful effect on the organizational culture. We also suggest that this model has practical implications on the way principals can evaluate their teachers’ empowerment patterns and accordingly assist their development toward change-enhancing empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores how French-secondary-trainee teachers perceive their professional development over their year-long training. Two research questions are addressed: How prominent is workplace learning in teaching competencies acquisition? Is there a relationship between learning modes and the kind of teaching competencies to be acquired? Four hundred and seventy-three secondary-trainee teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they rated to what extent 28 teaching competencies were being acquired at the end of the one-year training, along with the learning mode of these competencies. The findings suggest that learning on workplace is a multifaceted process that cannot be curtailed to mentoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reports on interviews with 24 beginning teachers about tensions they experienced regarding their professional identity. The interviewees reported a total of 59 tensions of tension that fell into three themes: (1) the change in role from student to teacher; (2) conflicts between desired and actual support given to students; and (3) conflicting conceptions of learning to teach. Most of the tensions experienced conform with those found in the literature. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of helplessness, frustration or anger, and the teachers had a strong desire to learn to cope with them. Because of their negative impact on beginning teachers’ professional development, it is important that teacher educators and mentors in schools pay serious attention to tensions like these that relate to beginning teachers’ professional identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at describing and analysing the interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas experienced by a group of five university teachers as they engaged in collaborative inquiry, including the ways in which teachers managed these dilemmas and how this contributed to their professional development. The results are based on qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, working sessions, participant observation and teacher narratives. Our findings illustrate how interpersonal and intrapersonal dilemmas co-occur when teachers engage in collaborative inquiry. Working together towards shared goals brought to the surface differences in beliefs and expectations that generated conflict and tension, which sometimes interfered with teachers’ willingness to work together. At the same time, introducing changes to their teaching practice – a major goal of inquiry communities – challenged teachers to question and revise their personal beliefs about teaching and learning, thereby triggering intrapersonal dilemmas. Our findings also confirm the key role of critical reflection for bringing these dilemmas to the surface and benefiting from the opportunities they provide for learning and change. Areas that warrant further exploration to better understand the dilemmas within inquiry communities and how to support teachers in handling them are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Conceptualizations of teacher knowledge have shifted to focusing on the role of experiential rather than theoretical knowledge. There are different approaches to this, but the idea of an image that guides practice is widespread. One approach to images that has not been frequently investigated in studies of second language teachers is through sociocultural theory, specifically in the contribution of activity theory known as orienting activity. In this view, images mediate teaching actions by linking theoretical knowledge and practical experience. This article will use orienting activity to examine the role that images play in an English as a second language teacher’s personal practical knowledge by drawing on classroom observations, informal discussions, simulated recall interviews and documentary evidence collected over a nine month period. Analysis of the data shows that several key images mediated the teacher’s classroom actions. These emerged in the observations and in the teacher’s commentary on planned and spontaneous, routine and novel and successful and unsuccessful activities. The images appeared to have developed through both tacit knowledge associated with practical experience and theoretical knowledge associated with research and theory. This demonstrates the usefulness of orienting activity as a theoretical framework for exploring classroom practices and teacher development through the links it can make between theory and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is strong political and social interest in values education both internationally and across Australia. Investment in young children is recognised as important for the development of moral values for a cohesive society; however, little is known about early years teachers’ beliefs about moral values teaching and learning. The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationships between Australian early years teachers’ epistemic beliefs and their beliefs about children’s moral learning. Three hundred and seventy-nine teachers completed a survey about their personal epistemic beliefs and their beliefs about children’s moral learning. Results indicated that teachers with more sophisticated epistemic beliefs viewed children as capable of taking responsibility for their own moral learning. Conversely, teachers who held more naïve or simplistic personal epistemic beliefs agreed that children need to learn morals through learning the rules for behaviour. Results are discussed in terms of the implications for moral pedagogy in the classroom and teacher professional development. It is suggested that in conjunction with explicitly reflecting on epistemic beliefs, professional development may need to assist teachers to ascertain how their beliefs might relate to their moral pedagogies in order to make any adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, the authors examine the impact of an English as a second language (ESL) professional development offering designed to meet this challenge: the Modular Design for English Language Learners (MODELL) instruction program. The authors were part of a team of faculty that designed and developed this hybrid professional development program to support classroom teachers challenged with assessing and addressing the educational needs of limited English proficient (LEP) students. The authors theorize that observing and describing the trajectory and complexities of the professional development process might offer significant insights for teacher educators regarding ways to prepare teachers for working in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. What was discovered through this study was that the teachers learned a lot about themselves and what they were capable of doing in the classroom; they learned that their peers struggled with similar issues and that out of this camaraderie, a solid support network could be established; and they learned that the multicultural classroom environment could be an asset to teaching and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting the challenge of program accountability is a goal for teacher education programs across the USA. In this context, achieving effective assessment practices that provide concrete evidence of program participants' knowledge and skills has become both an increasingly significant issue and a challenge to teacher education programs seeking to document the attainment of their program learning outcomes. This qualitative study examined the portfolio reflections of 51 teachers enrolled in an advanced master's degree program whose learning outcomes are aligned with the core propositions of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Using the four levels of reflection and a fifth level that emerged from data analysis, we examined the levels of development and change in teachers' reflections across the program. This analysis helped the researchers to determine to what degree teachers developed a reflection-based inquiry stance in their classrooms during the program. The study contributes new findings to the body of literature on the role and function of portfolios in teacher education programs seeking to document teachers' understanding and application of specific program goals and professional standards as a result of professional development coursework. As an authentic assessment tool, portfolio data (i.e., evidence such as the reflections contained therein) can provide an important lens for capturing teachers' approach to teaching and learning and provides insight into the complexity of professional development for practicing teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study shows how a group of English language lecturers use storytelling as a form of professional dialogue. The aim of the study is to highlight the dialogic role of storytelling in supporting the construction of lecturers' professional knowledge and not to identify lecturers' professional knowledge. In a professional development project, 12 lecturers created digital stories about their experiences of professional development. These stories were shared with colleagues who then responded with their own digital stories. A narrative framework was used to analyse stories for the types of connections lecturers made between stories. Five dialogic processes were identified: connecting, echoing, developing, questioning and constructing. Excerpts of stories are used to demonstrate how lecturers construct professional knowledge through storytelling. The study concludes by outlining the potential and limitations of storytelling as an approach to professional development and proposes further research into the dialogic capacity of storytelling in a professional development context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to unpack the complexity of teachers' professional knowledge construction in Assessment for Learning (hereafter, AfL). It presents a qualitative study of a school-based AfL Project which took place in a secondary school in Hong Kong. Thirty lessons video-recorded in the AfL Project and nine teacher interviews conducted after the Project were analyzed. The findings enrich our understanding of professional knowledge construction in four aspects: (1) personal nature of teachers' practical knowledge construction in contrived situations; (2) confined integration of AfL into pedagogical content knowledge in terms of 'skill progression that accompanies experience'; (3) more sophisticated integration of AfL into pedagogical content knowledge as 'practicalizing theoretical knowledge'; and (4) reflection, conscious deliberation, and 'theorizing practical knowledge' associated with more sophisticated professional knowledge integration. Implications for enhancing teachers' professional learning are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years teacher educators have witnessed an increase in the number of alternative pathways to university-based teacher education for prospective teachers. One option is for second-career teachers to enter post-baccalaureate programs in education; however, the experiences of second-career teachers are largely unexplored in the international literature. The purpose of this study was to investigate the teaching beliefs that post-baccalaureate students brought into a graduate level teacher certification program, and the extent to which those beliefs persevered or changed during their first year of teaching. Written philosophy statements and semi-structured interviews from the three participants were analyzed to identify emerging themes. Outcomes, presented in the form of vignettes, suggested that second-career teachers experienced many of the same contextual pressures as baccalaureate teachers and struggled adapting to the teaching profession and implementing their stated teaching beliefs. Implications include continued research on second-career teachers as they represent a distinct population entering the teaching profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]