Download or read book Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance written by Susan Groundwater-Smith and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance: Mind the Gap examines ways in which practice-based inquiry in educational settings, in a number of different countries and contexts, can transcend current ways of working and thinking such that authentic professional learning is the result. The authors contend that education policy, under pressure from a number of quarters, is retreating into a standardized, audited, and backward-looking arena, with the advances of more progressive educational philosophy being rolled back. In an age where practitioner inquiry and action research have often been ‘hijacked’ for the purposes of broad-based policy implementation, this book offers a rationale for reclaiming the critical edge so fundamental to inquiry-based professional learning. It examines the potential of inquiry-based forms of teacher professional learning to contribute to the growth of professional knowledge for and about teachers’ work. The authors intend that the book will assist in building new forms of professional knowledge that go beyond the current compliance model – engineered from less enduring materials – to inform a new model with its foundations in a strong ethical and moral framework. They also believe that this new model, if implemented, will help to reverse today’s conservative educational trends and make teacher professional development a force for genuine progress once again. They have consciously moved away from the celebratory tone of much of the academic reporting of teacher professional learning, adopting instead a genuinely critical edge. In covering a wide range of policies and practices from across the international spectrum, they have allowed themselves the freedom to engage in serious epistemological arguments about the nature of professional knowledge, as well as how it is constructed and employed.

Download or read book Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance written by Susan Groundwater-Smith and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-04-29 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance: Mind the Gap examines ways in which practice-based inquiry in educational settings, in a number of different countries and contexts, can transcend current ways of working and thinking such that authentic professional learning is the result. The authors contend that education policy, under pressure from a number of quarters, is retreating into a standardized, audited, and backward-looking arena, with the advances of more progressive educational philosophy being rolled back. In an age where practitioner inquiry and action research have often been ‘hijacked’ for the purposes of broad-based policy implementation, this book offers a rationale for reclaiming the critical edge so fundamental to inquiry-based professional learning. It examines the potential of inquiry-based forms of teacher professional learning to contribute to the growth of professional knowledge for and about teachers’ work. The authors intend that the book will assist in building new forms of professional knowledge that go beyond the current compliance model – engineered from less enduring materials – to inform a new model with its foundations in a strong ethical and moral framework. They also believe that this new model, if implemented, will help to reverse today’s conservative educational trends and make teacher professional development a force for genuine progress once again. They have consciously moved away from the celebratory tone of much of the academic reporting of teacher professional learning, adopting instead a genuinely critical edge. In covering a wide range of policies and practices from across the international spectrum, they have allowed themselves the freedom to engage in serious epistemological arguments about the nature of professional knowledge, as well as how it is constructed and employed.

Download or read book Transformational Professional Learning written by Deborah M. Netolicky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging from an education world that sees professional learning as a tool to positively shape teaching practice in order to improve student learning, Transformational Professional Learning elucidates professional learning that is transformational for teachers, school leaders, and schools. Written from the unique ‘pracademic’ perspective of an author who is herself a practising teacher, school leader, and researcher, this book articulates the why and the what of professional learning. It acts as a bridge between research and practice by weaving scholarly literature together with the lived experience of the author and with the voices of those working in schools. It covers topics from conferences, coaching, and collaboration, to teacher standards and leadership of professional learning. This book questions the ways in which professional learning is often wielded in educational settings and shows where teachers, school leaders, system leaders, and researchers can best invest their time and resources in order to support and develop the individuals, teams, and cultures in schools. It will be of great interest to teachers, leaders within schools, staff responsible for professional learning in school contexts, professional learning consultants, professional learning providers, and education researchers.

Download or read book Transformational Professional Learning written by Deborah M. Netolicky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging from an education world that sees professional learning as a tool to positively shape teaching practice in order to improve student learning, Transformational Professional Learning elucidates professional learning that is transformational for teachers, school leaders, and schools. Written from the unique ‘pracademic’ perspective of an author who is herself a practising teacher, school leader, and researcher, this book articulates the why and the what of professional learning. It acts as a bridge between research and practice by weaving scholarly literature together with the lived experience of the author and with the voices of those working in schools. It covers topics from conferences, coaching, and collaboration, to teacher standards and leadership of professional learning. This book questions the ways in which professional learning is often wielded in educational settings and shows where teachers, school leaders, system leaders, and researchers can best invest their time and resources in order to support and develop the individuals, teams, and cultures in schools. It will be of great interest to teachers, leaders within schools, staff responsible for professional learning in school contexts, professional learning consultants, professional learning providers, and education researchers.

Download or read book Connecting Inquiry and Professional Learning in Education written by Anne Campbell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-03-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How might inquiry enhance the professional practice of student and practising teachers, teacher educators and other practitioners? What effect might this have on the learning of young people in and outside of the classroom? Based on the findings of an international colloquium and drawing upon a range of practices from the UK, USA, Canada, Europe and Australia, this book is designed to make explicit the connections between Practitioner Inquiry and Teacher Professional Learning in Initial Teacher Education and Ongoing Teacher Professional Development. Considering issues such as the relationship between practitioner inquiry and pedagogical content knowledge whether it is possible to scale up from small local and intensive innovations to more broadly-based inquiry inquiry’s role in professional identity, both individual and communal prevailing socio-political contexts and consequences for social policy formation. It brings together writers who work in designing teacher education courses, and those who are practice-based researchers and policy makers. Crucially, many of these writers inhabit both spheres, and their accounts of how they successfully combine their multiple roles will prove vital reading for all those involved in examining and improving practice leading to enhanced teacher professional learning.

Download or read book Flip the System Australia written by Deborah M. Netolicky and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book by educators, for educators. It grapples with the complexities, the humanity and the possibilities in education. In a climate of competing accountabilities and measurement mechanisms; corporate solutions to education ‘problems’; and narratives of ‘failing’ schools, ‘underperforming’ teachers and ‘disengaged’ students; this book asks ‘What matters?’ or ‘What should matter?’ in education. Based in the unique Australian context, this book situates Australian education policy, research and practice within the international education narrative. It argues that professionals within schools should be supported, empowered and welcomed into policy discourse, not dictated to by top-down bureaucracy. It advocates for a flipping, flattening and democratising of the education system, in Australia and around the world. Flip the System Australia: What matters in education brings together the voices of teachers, school leaders and scholars in order to offer diverse perspectives, important challenges and hopeful alternatives to the current education system.

Download or read book Facilitating Practitioner Research written by Susan Groundwater-Smith and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book addresses the complex dilemmas and issues that arise from the contribution made to practitioner inquiry. Facilitating practitioner research is far more than providing advice upon methods which may be adopted, or even modelling research practices and drawing attention to appropriate resources and theories. It also requires the evolution of strong reciprocal partnerships that will contribute to professional knowledge formation in both the academy and the field. When such engagement is undertaken then matters associated with authentic ‘praxis development’ for field based and academic practitioners emerge. The authors explore how a transformative partnership requires particular professional attitudes of practitioners and academic researchers and show how it should result in three integrated areas of knowledge: the ideological, the empirical and the technical. The text draws upon extensive case studies from The Netherlands, Sweden and Australia which not only to illustrate and illuminate, but also highlight contradictions and tensions and serve to surface issues related to the quality of the partnerships between the academy and the field and the ways in which quality impacts upon practice. These varying social geographies also allow a discussion of different intellectual traditions, belief systems, problem settings, questions, and discourses

Download or read book Understanding the Dynamics of Teacher Agency Resilience and Identity in the Neoliberal Age written by Gang Zhu and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2022-12-19 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding the Dynamics of Teacher Agency, Resilience, and Identity in the Neoliberal Age foregrounds how the neoliberal educational reforms contribute to the (trans)formation of teacher agency, resilience, and identity through various theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches.

Download or read book Quality Learning written by Kathy Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-04-13 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When teachers are supported to work together in ways that allow them to deepen knowledge of their professional practice, the understandings that emerge from their conversations about quality learning and teaching demonstrate a high level of expertise. Yet such professional knowledge is often deeply embedded within each teacher’s everyday teaching; the tacit knowledge that determines how and why they attend to student learning in certain ways. This book captures the professional knowledge of teachers that developed as the result of an ongoing process of school based change, where teachers began to work differently because they began to think differently about the learning that mattered for their students in their school. The explication of their knowledge of practice became possible due to the ongoing support they received from their school leadership – in most part because leadership trusted them as professionals to responsibly lead student learning. Within this culture of trust and valued collaboration, working alongside external critical friends who supported their professional learning, the teachers engaged in regular, thought provoking and interactive professional dialogue. Together they exposed and challenged each other’s thinking and beliefs about learning and teaching, captured and examined each other’s practice and, ultimately articulated and extended their professional knowledge. The insights about this collaborative learning process and the emergent knowledge and understandings teachers develop about the interactive relationship between learning and teaching, has much to contribute to educational discourse beyond the school setting. Some of that knowledge and the way it looks in practice is shared in this book.

Download or read book The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse written by Fenwick W. English and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-10-13 with total page 1963 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook explores the discourse within the field of educational leadership and management. It provides a clear analysis of the current field as well as older foundational ideas and newer concepts which are beginning to permeate the discussion. The field of educational leadership and management has long acknowledged that educational contexts include a variety of leaders beyond school principals and other school officials such as informal and middle level leaders. By looking at the knowledge dynamic rather than a static knowledge base , this Handbook allows research to be presented in its multidimensional, evolving reality.

Download or read book Educating Students with Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences written by Maura Sellars and published by Verlag Barbara Budrich. This book was released on 2019-12-16 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book discusses the educational systems into which students with refugee backgrounds are placed when relocated into many of their new homelands. It discusses the current climate of neo liberalism which pervades schooling in many western countries and the subsequent impact on curriculum focus and teaching strategies. It proposes ways in which these students, who are currently the most vulnerable students in school, can be educated with policies and perspectives which respect the diversity and uniqueness that characterises the world today as the result of the global unrest and subsequent diaspora. The impact of power, politics, people and pedagogies on the prospects of these is investigated and a model for holistic education, which includes the wisdom and care of pedagogical love is discussed as way in which a more human and compassionate approach to education for these and all students of difference can be integrated into school communities despite neo liberal imperatives in education. Research indicates that schools which are spaces of safety and belonging, through leadership of care and empathy, can provide successful educational opportunities for students who have asylum seeker and refugee backgrounds and experiences.

Download or read book Questioning the Language of Improvement and Reform in Education written by Nicole Mockler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-05-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning the Language of Improvement and Reform in Education challenges the language used in education by linking the language of both the public and professional domains with the changing intentions of the governance of education. Exploring various issues, which embody the many manifestations of the manner in which strident, conservative language has captured the public view of education, the book covers topics such as the importance of language in the context of educational practice, the media's portrayal of teachers globally, the role of students in the face of curriculum reform and the language used in educational policy worldwide. The book addresses the ways in which the words ‘improvement’ and ‘reform’ have been appropriated and hollowed-out by policymakers in order to justify globalised education policies. Using international case studies and reports, the authors argue that the employment of specific words masks the reality that new educational policies are regressive and require re-examination, while perpetuating the illusion that progressive educational practice is being brought to the fore. Questioning the Language of Improvement and Reform in Education is a fascinating and original take on this topic, which will be of great interest to educational practitioners, policymakers and linguists.

Download or read book The Village and the World written by Martin Mills and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-29 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has been argued that too much research is conducted for the 'world' of education research, and not enough for the 'village' of particular educational institutions like schools. In this edited book, the authors reflect on what it means for teachers to be engaged in and with educational research. What is happening in the ‘village’ of schools, and how is that related to what is happening in the ‘world’ of educational research? What might the distinction between the ‘village’ and the ‘world’ mean today, and is it still a useful one? The chapters in this book explore the prospects of teacher research in an age in which educational data proliferates, often used for accountability and surveillance purposes, and in which instrumentalist notions of 'evidence-based practice' dominate. They consider contexts ranging from Initial Teacher Education through to ongoing teacher professional learning in schools. This volume concludes with an argument for turning the conversation from research as an 'add-on' to something that can be, should be, and arguably is, a central feature of the everyday work of teaching. It aims to envision positive futures for the kinds of 'villages' and 'worlds' that may be possible when enabling meaningful and rich research with, for and by teachers. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal, Teaching Education.

Download or read book The School Leadership Survival Guide written by Jeffrey S. Brooks and published by IAP. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The School Leadership Survival Guide: What to Do When Things Go Wrong, How to Learn from Mistakes, and Why You Should Prepare for the Worst is intended as an uncommon guide for school leaders and a resource they can turn to when confronted with issues they might not normally face in typical practice. The book serves as a bridge between research and day-to-day school leadership, and is intended to help leaders and school communities improve in areas they routinely avoid. In this sense, the book is meant as a “go to” resource for principals, those who train and teach them, and scholars. Although authors recognize the complexity of issues raised in the book, each chapter has a “How to” “What to do” or “Why You Should” ethos in order to give the book a unifying structure and help provide a practical translation of research and theory into practice. Some of the issues addressed include: How to elevate student voice; How to navigate religious conflict in the school and community; How to improve support for LGBTIQ students; Why You Should develop a natural disaster plan; How to work against racism in the school and community; How to practice inclusion in the school; How to make a vision and mission come to life; How to manage relationships with difficult people; What to do when there is racial tension in the community; How to learn the history of your school and community—and why that matters; How to guide and support a leadership team, and; What to do in a school with low trust.

Download or read book From Practice to Praxis A reflexive turn written by Susan Groundwater-Smith and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-11-10 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Practice to Praxis is an exploration of the development of ethical practice as it applies to the meaning of quality within the tradition of practitioner inquiry and participatory research. Chronicling some of her most important works, this is a compelling overview of Susan Groundwater-Smith’s contribution to the evolution of the nexus between thinking and theory as it stands between the academy and the field. It traces the steps between instrumental reasoning towards a more liberatory and challenging stance. The book selects from a number of publications, each representing the genesis of the nascent ideas that have informed Susan’s practice as a scholar and researcher. Taking a praxis stance draws attention not only to procedural concerns, how things are done; but also substantive issues that are associated with different forms of dialogue and trustworthiness, why things are done. In addition to the assemblage of articles and chapters, the book is prefaced by a long essay that reveals those features of the writer’s self-understanding as it is illuminated throughout the selection. The work is situated within a professional life-history, as well as relating to extant writings on theory and practice within a complex cultural and ever-changing professional educational environment. From Practice to Praxis will appeal to initial teacher education students in both primary and secondary settings, as well as post-graduate students with an interest in action research/participant research with both practitioners in the field and young people.

Download or read book The Practice of Teachers Professional Development written by Helen Grimmett and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory to provide a unique theorisation of teachers’ professional development as a practice. A practice can be described as the socially structured actions set up to produce a product or service aimed at meeting a collective human need. In this case, collaborative, interventionist work with teachers in two different Australian primary schools sought to simultaneously identify, understand and develop the necessary conditions for supporting the teachers’ development as professionals. The in-depth analysis of this practice provides interesting insight into professional development for teachers at all levels of schooling, and provides strong support for educational researchers, administrators and consultants to reconsider many existing forms of professional learning/development programs. This book supports the contemporary view that professional learning must take place with teachers, rather than be delivered to teachers, but provides an important expansion to current work in this area by arguing that a focus on teachers’ learning of new strategies and principles may still fall short of creating long term change in teachers’ professional practice. By taking a cultural-historical approach, the focus moves to supporting teachers’ development of unified concepts (the intertwining of theoretical and practical aspects) and motives to continue their ongoing development as professionals. This emphasis builds teachers’ capacity to examine and disrupt habitual practices and understand, create and implement thoughtful and sustainable transformations in all areas of their professional life. This book therefore builds upon the ongoing conversation about professional learning and development, offering a new framework for researching, understanding and developing this critical practice.

Download or read book Teachers Worlds and Work written by Christopher Day and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding what influences the quality of teachers’ work across a career is key to building and sustaining their on-going commitment and effectiveness. Teachers’ Worlds and Work provides a new, research-informed consideration of key elements which independently and together influence teachers' work and lives: policy and workplace conditions, teacher professionalism, identity, emotions, commitment and resilience, types of professional learning and development, and the importance of the contribution to these made by high-quality leadership. In bringing these elements together, the book provides new, detailed and holistic understandings of their influence and suggests ways of building and sustaining teachers' abilities and willingness to teach to their best and well over their careers. This groundbreaking text will be essential reading for teacher educators, teachers, head teachers and academics.