Being part of a profession brings with it both contractual and moral obligations, and one of these obligations is that professionals should consider themselves as career-long learners. Accessing and engaging in appropriate professional learning involves: being able to reflect critically on one’s own learning priorities; understanding the development needs and priorities of one’s own work context; understanding the wider national policy context and being able to adopt a critically reflective stance on that; ensuring that learning makes an impact on practice; engaging with relevant research evidence about teaching and learning; and not least, finding time to engage meaningfully in professional learning activities. The following texts explore the complexities and importance of these aspects of professional learning.
Stenhouse continues to have much to teach us on the role of the teacher in a democracy and Sachs continues and extends the tradition.
Sachs, J. (2003) The Activist Teaching Profession. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Stenhouse, L. (1983) Authority, Education and Emancipation. London: Heinemann.
Further reading includes:
Ball, S.J., Maguire, M., Braun, A. & Hoskins, K. (2011). Policy actors: Doing policy work in schools. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 32(4), 625-639. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2011.601565
Cordingley P, Bell M, Evans D, Firth A (2005) The impact of collaborative CPD on classroom teaching and learning. What do teacher impact data tell us about collaborative CPD? In: Research Evidence in Education Library. London: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education.
Timperley, H., Wilson, A., Barrar, H. & Fung, I. (2008). Teacherprofessional learning and development: best evidence synthesis iteration. NZ Ministry of Education and University of Auckland.
