Section archive - Professional Development

This study builds upon research on teacher professional communities and high school restructuring reforms. It employs a conceptual framework that draws upon theories of “community of practice” and “community of learners.” The study analyzes how teachers’ professional inquiry communities at the high school level constitute a resource for school reform and instructional improvement. The findings demonstrate how the enactment of design choices holds particular consequences for the nature and quality of teacher learning and school improvement.

In this article, the authors argue that today’s educational leaders face a host of complex demands as they strive to implement lasting, meaningful change in their school environments.As these demands often require a level of personal development many adults may not yet have, there is a need for professional development programs that are genuinely developmental. The article describes one such program that provides the opportunity for participants to make qualitative shifts in the ways that they understand themselves and their work. Using case study methodology, the authors explore the psychological development of one participant as she increases her capacity to determine, and be guided by, her own theories, values, and expectations of her personal and professional relationships and responsibilities.

This article investigates the identity talk of three mid-career teachers in an urban, public school in the USA, to better understand how the teachers used language to accomplish complex professional identities. The analysis presented here extends our understanding of language as a resource in teacher identity construction by using discourse analysis to investigate how speakers use implicit meaning to accomplish the role identity of teacher. Findings show that the teachers strategically positioned themselves in relation to others and to institutional practices, actively negotiating competing discourses about teacher identity.

In response to the need to train teachers to effectively integrate technology into elementary and secondary education, a teacher professional development program funded by a federal grant provided a selection of instructional technology integration courses to K-12 teachers. This study investigated the impact of these courses on the course participants' self-efficacy in learning about and implementing instructional technology. The study also explored the differential effects of these courses on participants' self-efficacy due to different demographic characteristics. The positive perceptions of the course effectiveness from the participants suggested an overall success of the program.