Conference Agenda

- Objective -

As part of the 3rd year of my doctoral research in Contemporary Studies, at the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Coimbra, I am currently undertaking the experimental phase of a transdisciplinary exploration that looks into Arts and Design as a Ludic Space, where players are more keen for adventures and prone to collaborate.

My main objective is to acknowledge CREATIVE EMANCIPATION as an irreplaceable complement to academic learning and therefore present across every field of culture.

In this regard, my research aims to demonstrate that collaboration can be fun, and therefore by losing the need for total control of our lives, we may be able to gain autonomy and collective power over our territory, not by making games serious, but by engaging in play that is never completely predetermined, but genuinely elicited by the search to enjoy each other.

- Main Research Question -

How can Game Design spark/inspire collective action for playfully coordinated political deliberation of everyday life?

- Conceptual Framework -

The games we play entail our first experience of political education, as they require us to assume roles, experiment power, manage conflicts and make decisions within the limited a playscape (Farnè).

By interacting through games, what Fröbel called gifts, Vygotsky pivots, and Winnicott transitional objects, an educational experience is turned into self-learning practices as players learn what they need, at their own pace (Farnè).

Similarly to carnival, festivals and parties, games are arenas for cultural exchange and can be studied as evidence of material culture. The processes used to build each copy reveal the technological dexterity, material availability, visual references and cultural concerns of players and designers. Play is conceived as a spontaneous and attractive attitude, granting games with a fleeting flexibility to spread, transporting their elements across cultures, while keeping their main characteristics together (Spanos).

Since nobody can be forced to play, games allows players to relate to their environment by engaging into open-ended unconventional interactions, looking at complex issues and building low-fidelity representations of what they find relevant (Huizinga, Piaget, Vigotsky, Farné).

It is also true that play has a perverse side, when for example, players are no longer aware they are being played (Flusser, Flanagan). As manipulation, abuse and welfare tactics may seem to be justified, game designers, teachers and ultimately every authority with the privilege of crafting others' experiences are responsible for their wellbeing and must act accordingly to their needs and expectations, promoting opennes to diversity, mutual respect and care among players.

Play as a Pedagogy can be thought of as an enthusiastic system, where people cooperate with one another, in order to assure positive interdependence, preparing players to become responsible for their own path, attentive to their own motivations and to those of their peers.

Overview

Home Economics education employs a multifaceted, interdisciplinary approach seeking to empower students with the skills to cultivate reflective, critical decision-making abilities they require to deal with practical perennial problems. It has been defined by the International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE) as a curriculum area that “facilitates students to discover and further develop their own resources and capabilities to be used in their personal life, by directing their professional decisions and actions or preparing them for life” (IFHE Position Statement - Home Economics in the 21st Century, 2008). Initial teacher education institutions and educators have a significant role to play devising curricula that address the complexity and uncertainty of our current times. They must integrate contemporary global challenges into the curriculum to prepare teachers for dynamic classroom discussions and practical problem-solving. Teachers need to be trained to be adaptable and resilient, equipping them with strategies to handle unexpected changes and stressors. There is a need to ensure that teachers are proficient with digital tools and teaching methodologies which are essential in a technology-driven educational landscape.

Teachers need to be prepared to create inclusive environments that respect and accommodate diverse cultural backgrounds and learning needs while also in them the importance of lifelong learning, enabling them to stay updated with the latest educational trends and practices.

This study will examine how historical socio-economic changes and technological advancements have influenced the evolution of Home Economics education in Europe, and what are the projected future trends and challenges for this field in a global context. In times of social and economic uncertainty, teaching essential life skills through Home Economics education is critical. Educators must be equipped to support students' ability to critically consider possible actions for solutions that serve the well-being of people and the planet.

Research Questions

• How have socioeconomic factors and trends throughout history influenced the development and transformation of Home Economics education in Europe?
• How do current socio-political and economic challenges impact Home Economics education differently across various European countries?
• In the context of mass migration, how is European identity being shaped within Home Economics education in different European nations?
• What varied strategies are Home Economics initial teacher education institutions and educators employing in different European countries to adapt to contemporary and future societal challenges?

Objectives

The objective is to explore and compare how Home Economics initial teacher education in various European countries- Finland, Ireland and Estonia have adapted to socio-political and economic challenges, the role it plays in shaping European identity amidst mass migration, and the strategies educators use to prepare for contemporary and future societal changes. This research aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the differences and similarities in Home Economics education across Europe, offering insights into best practices and future directions for the field.

Theoretical Framework

This research will use a multidisciplinary approach and explore the historical context of challenges and their influence on educational research and practice. It will also examine the role of educationalists in responding to these societal changes and conceptualising their roles in the changing landscape. The aim is to understand the impact of current societal challenges on Home Economics education and to explore ways it can evolve to address these issues.

Educational Sociology: Examining how societal factors, including economic and political dynamics, influence educational systems and pedagogical approaches in Home Economics in Europe.

Comparative Education: Focuses on analysing and comparing Home Economics education across different European countries, providing insights into how diverse socio-political contexts shape educational practices.

Cultural Studies: Investigating the role of Home Economics in shaping and reflecting European identities, especially in the context of increased cultural diversity due to migration.

This research focuses on nuanced expressions of vulnerability within climate activist groups on social media and their impact on political protest. In recent years, the climate movement has grown significantly, both in Europe and around the globe. Especially the movement „Fridays for Future“ has gained momentum since 2018 and youth resistance has since become a global phenomenon. In their protests, activists frame their political demands around an injustice resulting from previous generations actions (Eide & Kunelius, 2021; Spaiser et al., 2022) , rendering them vulnerable to imminent climate catastrophes. Vulnerability based on a neglect of care from preceding generations (King, 2010) therefore acts as one of the main narratives in activist articulations. According to Butler (2016), vulnerability is conceptualized as an ontological, relational category that is impossible to overcome in general terms but whose distribution should be equalized where possible. It is thus often the basis of political activism that demands political action based on an injust and avoidable exposure to vulnerability (ibid.). In terms of climate activism, the relational character exceeds interpersonal relations and contains the dependence on environmental surroundings. It remains an ambivalent attribution, as the explication of vulnerability is on the one hand often re-configured as „heroic“ (Safaian, 2022), whereas declaring vulnerability over a specific (sub)group can on the other hand be conzeptualized as an expression of hegemonic power (Govrin, 2022; Manzo, 2010).

The climate movement in Europe and the so-called Global North has been publicly criticised as a group of wealthy youth, primarily bound by shared privilege, thus depoliticizing the protests (von Zabern & Tulloch, 2021) - although there is conflicting empirical data regarding this argument (della Porta & Portos, 2021). Nonetheless, statistical evidence indicates that activists are well-educated (Sommer et al. 2019) and in a global perspective, disproportianaley less vulnerable to climate change than respective youth in the „majority world“ (Crawford et al., 2023). Notwithstanding, the acknowledgment and effective communication of vulnerability, both within specific activist groups and as a global ecological concern, remain crucial for crafting affective narratives, especially in the realm of social media networks (Papacharissi, 2016) that are crucial in connecting disparate events to a global movement (Bouliane et al., 2020). The complex position that European activists navigate, oscillating between victimhood and directly profiting from global injustice systems (Malafaia, 2022), necessitates a comprehensive analysis that avoids merely responsibilizing climate activists. Therefore, the question of group constitution that is on the one hand based on a global political injustice (in which children and youth have been argued to shape the „climate precariat“ as proposed by Holmberg & Alvinius, 2021) and yet acknowledges global differences along intersectional vulnerabilities (Crenshaw, 2010; Yuval-Davis, 2010) remains crucial.

This research adopts a qualitative approach, intending to empirically examine the negotiation and affective depiction of vulnerability in public articulations of climate protest on social media platforms. While existing research has delved into climate activism, particularly on digital platforms (Neumayer & Rossi, 2018; Belotti et al., 2022), this study aims to contribute by systematically analyzing depictions and attributions of vulnerability within the activism, and its intricate interplay with privilege within the European context. The poster emphasizes the need for a nuanced understanding that recognizes the relational structure of vulnerability (Butler, 2016) and the resulting political imperative for care (Bond et al., 2020). Main research ocjective for the poster presentation is to answer the question (RQ1) How do climate activists articulate and negotiate vulnerability on social media platforms and how do these articulations shape their political activism in the context of the European climate movement?

This paper aims to understand how inequalities manifest in classrooms in India and interact with learning processes. It will focus on the pedagogic practices utilised by teachers in the classroom, specifically the classification and framing rules of knowledge and pedagogy, to understand the relations of power and control lying within the classrooms. This paper is based on an ethnographic study conducted in the government schools of Delhi which aimed at understanding the role of the social identity- the intersection of caste, class, religious, and gender identity- of the learner in mediating the teaching-learning practices and relations in the classroom to facilitate the learning process.

Several studies and assessment surveys worldwide have indicated a link between socio-economic background of students and their schooling experiences. PISA analysis has highlighted the gaps in learning outcomes between students from advantaged and disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Even within schools in India, disparities in learning outcomes are indicated by the poor performance of students from marginalised caste/class groups in arithmetic and language skills. Often poor performance is concentrated in rural or government-run schools. This is furthered by a stratified schooling system wherein students from marginalised castes and the working class attend the majority of the government-run (public) schools, while the most (more expensive) private schools are attended majorly by the middle and upper class/castes. Theories of social class reproduction have been used to analyse schools as sites for the recreation and solidifying of inequalities by embodying the dominant culture or middle-class habitus, developing skills compatible with hierarchical positions, and as a state apparatus for exercising control and hegemony. Studies have indicated the existence of prejudices and discrimination in the schooling experiences of students from marginalised groups but there is limited research that examines the impact of socio-economic differences directly on learning processes especially in the urban context.

This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s theoretical framework that analyses the dialectical relationship of structural inequalities and agency by looking at the relations of power and control at the macro (knowledge production) and also micro (recontextualization) level of the classroom where inequalities can be negotiated or legitimised. Although the conceptualisation originates from a European context, Bernstein provides a comprehensive framework to understand the learning processes in a classroom where the intersection of structural inequalities permeate in light of the gaps in learning outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged students. This paper theoretically engages with Bernstein and tries to expand the framework beyond social class to include the intersection of identities of caste, religion, class, and gender.

Bernstein explains the pedagogic code of schools as an elaborated code which is transmitted through variations in classification degree ("organisational" elements of pedagogy or “degree of boundary maintenance” of contents) and framing of knowledge (interactional elements of knowledge or degree of control over selection, pacing, and organisation) at the level of instructional discourse and regulative discourse. These shape the power and control relations between teachers, students, knowledge structures, etc. Bernstein argues that although schools reward students with the orientation that enables them to access the context-independent knowledge structures of the school, it is also needed to enable an environment that recognises the identity of working-class students and does not hold a deficit view of marginalised people.

By following this line of inquiry, the paper tries to address the overarching research question: what pedagogic practices (including what knowledge [classification] and how it is transmitted [framing]) are used by the teachers to recontextualize knowledge in the classroom?

In Hungary, after the change of regime in 1990, a number of educational policy changes affected primary schools, which also had a major impact on students' opportunities for further education. These changes in the education system are strongly influenced by both social and economic factors (Andl, 2015, 2020; Halász, 2001), which in the case of Hungarian schools can be mainly seen in the processes of centralisation and decentralisation (Kozma, 2014). In the 1990s, subsidies to local governments played an important role in the life of educational institutions, as they led to a significant increase in the number of schools (Andl, 2015; Imre, 1997). However, the decade was also characterised by segregation in education policy, which mainly affected Roma pupils (Forray, 2009; Forray & Pálmainé Orsós, 2010), and was also contributed to by the right of parents to choose their schools (Havas et al, 2001). This was changed by the integration efforts of the early 2000s, which were also reflected in the school scene. The Integration Pedagogical System (IPS) was established within this framework, providing significant support to the institutions participating in the programme for almost a decade. By 2012, it had been implemented in 2.000 public education institutions and had reached more than 100.000 pupils (Híves, 2016). The „Széll Kálmán Plan”, introduced in 2010, reflects the drive to centralise education: „the state must return to the world of education. The quality of education should not depend on the situation and ad hoc decisions of local governments, the state can bring uniform order in this area” (Széll Kálmán Plan, 2010 cited in Györgyi, 2019, p. 214).

In my research, I will mainly examine the impact of these interventions through the example of an institution that has innovated a lot in the space of thirty years, but is now under threat of closure due to a drastic reduction in the number of students. This institution is one of the participants in the career guidance mentoring programme in which I am involved as a junior researcher. The child-centred pedagogical work in the school and the dedication of the teachers struck me when I was doing input research for this research and development programme. It was then that I began to wonder how, despite its positive values, the survival of the school was threatened.

The research work falls within the framework of the educational poverty phenomenon, which, thanks to the contributions of studies and research, as well as a legislative path incentivized – also – by advocacy efforts from the Third Sector (Save the Children, 2014), has become central in recent years in scientific and political discourse, entering the realm of public policy agendas.

The notion of poverty in the educational context emerged in the social sciences discourse in the late 1990s to draw attention to the multidimensionality of the poverty phenomenon (Anand & Sen, 1997), not entirely reducible to purely economic aspects.

Over the past two decades, there has been extensive discourse in the literature regarding the significance of measuring and analyzing educational poverty (Allmendinger & Leibfried, 2003; Lohmann & Ferger, 2014). It has been emphasized that the impact of educational deprivation is subtle, creating a gap during a vulnerable period that proves challenging to overcome later in life (Battilocchi, 2020). An initial disadvantage can result in a crystallization of the same across different generations and transform cultural factors into hereditary elements, in a vicious circle of poverty.

Numerous international and national organizations have directed attention to poverty and educational challenges, with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development addressing these issues (United Nations General Assembly, 2015). Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 emphasizes the need to eradicate poverty in all its forms, while SDG 4 aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. Moreover, many European strategies and recommendations have focused on addressing issues related to poverty and education, starting with the Lisbon Strategy (European Council, 2000).

In this context, accurate measures of educational poverty are crucial for designing effective policy interventions, and local data play a vital role in tailoring actions to specific communities. A review of the scientific literature reveals that the dimensions and measures of educational poverty are not fully developed. In fact, despite numerous studies on the subject (Agasisti et al., 2021; Botezat, 2016), there is still a lack of shared theorization of this notion to date. Educational poverty is understood as a polysemic concept with broad semantic boundaries, multidimensional, and depicted by a poly-perspective characterization. It can be described as a world of deprivation and exclusion that pertains to various forms of educational deprivation, impeding the full development of human potential.

Building on this perspective, this research aims to investigate the phenomenon of educational poverty among minors from migrant backgrounds, who «are particularly exposed to educational poverty due to more challenging family and economic conditions, bureaucratic obstacles, inequalities in accessing high school tracks, and early school dropout» (IDOS Research and Study Center & Institute of Political Studies S. Pio V, 2021, p. 98).

In particular, the investigation is guided by the following research question: 1) What differences can be identified between minors with and without a migratory background regarding the phenomenon of educational poverty? 2) What are the characteristics of the phenomenon of educational poverty among minors from migrant backgrounds? 3) How do some of the most relevant factors, such as socio-economic background, gender, and type of migratory background, influence the educational poverty of minors from migrant backgrounds?

Since gaining independence, Kazakhstan has significantly emphasized language policies as part of the Kazakhization process (Fierman, 2006; Smagulova, 2008). The central focus has been on the development of the Kazakh language and the increase of Kazakh-medium schools. Despite this, Russian-medium schools constitute 17% of all schools, while mixed schools, incorporating Russian-medium classes, comprise 32%, indicating their relevance in the post-colonial context. International and domestic assessments reveal disparities in academic outcomes based on the medium of instruction, with Russian-medium schools significantly outperforming Kazakh language schools (Muratkyzy, 2020; OECD, 2012). This can lead parents to prefer Russian-medium schools, potentially contradicting Kazakhization policies and indirectly accentuating economic inequality which is important in creating a more culturally cohesive society. This study addresses the dearth of empirical research on parental school choice concerning the language of instruction.

Drawing on Spolsky’s (2009) language management and Kambatyrova’s (2020) language ideologies frameworks, it seeks to answer the following main research question: How do ethnic Kazakh parents make choices regarding the language of instruction for their children at primary schools? Specifically, it aims to uncover: 1) The underlying motivations and rationales driving ethnic Kazakh parents to choose a particular language of instruction for their children. 2) The existing ideologies among parents regarding languages of instruction and how these influence the overall decision-making process. 3) Other non-linguistic factors that may influence parents’ decisions regarding the language of instruction.

As practitioner-researcher working in Post-16 vocational education with 16-19 year olds and their teachers, my research aims to understand the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of literacy embedding. ‘Embedding’ is the deliberate teaching of literacy objectives as an integrated element of the vocational curriculum, and is found to produce enormous benefits for students’ vocational and skills qualification achievement when carried out effectively (Casey et al., 2006).

The last national embedding policy ended in 2011 with the discontinuation of the Skills for Life strategy (England and Wales). Since then, along with a decade of funding challenges, literacy embedding has been sidelined in favour of the 2014 GCSE English re-sit policy; GCSEs are end-of secondary school academic qualifications. The aim of this policy is to push as many students over the GCSE English pass-line as possible. This is a laudable aim, but unfortunately, there is little evidence that the policy produces literacy learning which students can transfer to their vocational subjects (Verhoeven, 2022). Vocational subject teachers comment that their students lack the literacy skills to do well in their courses, but that the teachers themselves lack the knowledge to support their students. With scant resources in post-16 education now focused on the GCSE English re-sit, embedding knowledge developed during the Skills for Life years may have been lost.

These suppositions are anecdotal – the last large-scale study into post-16 literacy embedding was conducted during the Skills for Life years in 2006 with the Casey et al. report. Skills for Life was an excellent starting point, but did not conceptualise literacy in terms of vocational epistemologies. There is compelling theoretical and empirical research which finds that subject epistemologies are directly related to text structures. Genre theory and Disciplinary literacy research, informed by Functional Linguistics, reaches this conclusion (Cope & Kalantzis, 1993; Shanahan & Shanahan, 2012; Swales, 1990; Tardy, 2011). This suggests that students should be taught explicitly how to ‘analyse’, ‘evaluate’, and ‘compare’ along with associated text and syntactical structures.

My research attempts to break new ground by using this theoretical grounding to focus on vocational subject teacher development. There are international implications; Genre and Disciplinary Literacy research is currently applied to academic subjects, particularly in the USA and Australian contexts, but not yet, as far as I know, to vocational education and training. I am attempting to understand:

1. What knowledge do vocational subject teachers need to do embedding?
2. How can teachers be supported to develop this knowledge?

In this vein, my research is informed by the teacher knowledge frameworks proposed by Shulman (1986), and developed in relation to literacy by Carney and Indrisano (2013), as well as Clarke and Hollingsworth’s model of teacher change (2002).

My research will hopefully result in a dual-framework: 1) a curricular and pedagogical toolkit for teaching vocational subject genres; 2) a ‘schedule’ of teacher genre knowledge required to embed literacy, with suggested approaches for developing this knowledge. My ultimate intention is to produce practical and theoretical findings which will support students’ literacy development in the vocational education context. This work is driven by a social justice agenda. Known as the ‘Cinderella sector’, FE is under-researched and under-resourced (Atkins & Flint, 2015). Its students tend to come from socio-economically deprived backgrounds, and are more likely to drop out of university after one year and gain a lower class degree than their academic subject counterparts (Myhill et al., 2019). This is the vocational-academic dimension of the attainment gap. My research aims to address this particular form of inequality.

In Europe, the assessment of language proficiency in the Second Language (SL) of migrants once they arrive in the country of immigration, if not even prior to this moment, is crucial for permanence in the destination territory of migration. Consequently language can tip the scale that decides against the fate of migrants in the migratory context, based on the assessment of linguistic and grammatical skills, founded on the criteria defined by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Beyond these regulatory and normative connotations, SL has a central role in the path of social inclusion in the host society and, for this reason, the right to language education is fundamental to the migrant's effective and active participation and, indeed, can be defined precisely as the most important skill to be acquired with a view to medium- or long-term stay in the host country (OECD, 2021).

The linguistic dimension, however, is much more heterogeneous, biographical and, at the same time, cultural. For these reasons, in addition to the acquisition of grammatical and lexical skills alone, it is unthinkable not to consider identity and social aspects as well in the construction of pathways of education, hosting and inclusion. Such consideration ensures that the formative and educational experience is not characterized by the assimilationist paradigm, but, rather, by a curious, supportive and humanizing attitude toward otherness.

The intercultural perspective in SL learning allows for the recognition of all the cultural and identity aspects that characterize the linguistic biography of the subject who, in migration, finds himself interacting with other languages and other identities. In the communicative relationship with otherness, dialogue is fundamental and cannot be excluded from pedagogical and cultural reflection, which is essential in order to effectively direct educational interventions toward an intercultural and socially inclusive society. In this perspective, plurilingualism arising, also, from migration encourages and promotes forms of participation of "otherness" that, among other things, predisposes the overcoming of power dynamics inherent also to the linguistic dimension. Indeed, it is recognized that forms of cultural racism also find in language a mode of expression of relations of domination and that Fanon (1952), specifically, identifies the promotion of the colonizer's language as a civilizing language, defining a relational hierarchy dependent on cultural and identity factors. The risk inherent in the imposition of the acquisition of the language of the country of immigration at the expense of the linguistic and cultural background of which the migrant person is the bearer would, in fact, entail the adoption of the assimilationist paradigm by the country of immigration, favoring passive coexistence instead of social interaction resulting from inclusive processes.

For these reasons, the realities of non-formal language training for migrants were investigated, paying attention to the inclusion practices applied in these contexts and noting the criticalities of this sector and the unmet needs of users. At the theoretical level, the project is guided by the analysis of migration, the encounter between cultures and the processes of inclusion captured through an intercultural, post-colonial and intersectional perspective of the phenomenon under investigation. The three research questions that guided the investigation of the phenomenon are: 1. What are the characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of non-formal language training practices for migrants? 2. What are the educational, cultural and social needs of migrants?3. In particular, what training tools are effective in empowering migrants attending SL courses (also in the recent pandemic situation)?

English as a global language has predominated over languages other than English (LOTEs) in language education studies for ages. This trend has been emphasised in non-Anglophone countries' higher education systems, which resulted in a decline in LOTE education worldwide (Gao & Zheng, 2019; Lanvers, 2018). On the other hand, the Chinese government has initiated a programme of multilingual reform in education as a concomitant of the “Belt and Road Initiative” (B&R) in 2013. As a substantial China-led infrastructure project, the B&R initiative focuses on transnational construction, railways, and highways which has connected East Asia and Europe and extended to Africa, Oceania, and Latin America within a decade. To date, 147 countries are participating or showing interest in the B&R initiative which involves more than 50 official languages other than English. Since the scope of the bilateral economic relations between China and other non-Anglophone countries has been expanded, the significance of LOTEs has drawn the attention of the government of China mainland, which promotes the development of LOTE education in Chinese tertiary education (Chen et al., 2021). The promotion of LOTE programmes in national language policies in China will diversify the multilingual journey of stakeholders at the local level, such as language teachers and college students. However, there is a general paucity of empirical research describing how the national language policy is being understood by meso-level (institutional) actors in higher education in China. Meanwhile, few studies have examined the potential contribution of institutional agency work to the language policy and planning (LPP) concerning LOTEs (Hamid et al., 2018) and the consequences of current LPP for the learner agency of LOTE students in Chinese universities.
Generally, agency is the ability to make decisions, on which people act to change their lives. A widely circulated definition of agency was proposed by Ahearn (2001, p. 112) as ‘a socio-culturally mediated capacity to act’, which includes socio-affective factors like motivation, attitudes, and actions (Hatoss, 2018). Lantolf and Thorne (2006) further explain agency as ‘socioculturally mediated and dialectically enacted’ (p. 238), which can be in relation to the reciprocal influence of language teaching and learning (Glasgow & Bouchard, 2019).
To address the above-mentioned research gap, this study aims to investigate the agency meso-level LPP actors in a prestigious university in China underpinned by Glasgow and Bouchard (2019)’s Model for studying agency in LPP. Overall, the objective of this research is to explore how individual actors including educators and students exercise their agency in shaping different LOTE programs and investigate the interaction of individual agency between actors across different social layers.

This qualitative case-study research explores the role of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers in the language in education policy context.

In the modern society it is very common to promote bilingual or even trilingual educational policies, where learners will be able to acquire languages which are recognised by the government as essential for its development (Ferguson, 2006; McKay, 2010, Spolsky, 2003; Mehisto, Kambatyrova and Nurseitova, 2012). Considering economically, socially, and politically important goals for the development of Kazakhstan in future, English became the strategic language of international relations in the trilingual policy on a par with Kazakh (the State language) and Russian (the inter-ethnic language) in Kazakhstan. However, the task was about how to make the implementation of English successful since it was not used widely in the country. The EFL teachers are not only those who promote foreign language knowledge and skills, but as well they play one of the essential roles in imparting educational values which are the basis of education in the language policy context. In this study the role of English language teachers in Kazakhstani mainstream schools in urban and rural contexts in trilingual policy in education enactment process is explored through the analysis of multiple case-studies conducted in secondary school system in Kazakhstan. As noted by Radha (2016) teachers’ role is vital in nation building since they build every single student’s character. We might even assume that future generations depend on teachers, as teachers shape them to prepare to the world. This study presents the preliminary findings of a wider research (PhD) which is been conducted during 2020-2024.

The main research objective is to offer insights how the policy is understood and enacted in specific teaching context.

The main theoretical framework for this research is the Spolsky's triad of language policy and language planning, where professor Bernard Spolsky (2022) suggested the theory on how to analyse language policy through the perspective of both top-down and bottom-up decisions, practices, and beliefs of education policy makers and language teachers (2004). This triad is important to this study, as the trilingual policy in Kazakhstani mainstream schools is being viewed through the perspective of teacher beliefs (ideology), teacher practice (power), and teacher agency. In this study I was following the critical realist case study approach. Critical realism philosophical paradigm can be defined as there are two dimensions of the world where one is observed, and the other is real (not observed). Ontologically speaking, in this project I have observed whether teachers’ ideologies are reflected in their practice, as critical realists claim knowledge is partial and context dependent (Creamer, 2018). It means that if teachers have any beliefs or attitudes related to teaching and learning process considering educational values as one of the ways of effective trilingual policy enactment, then do they use their teacher agency and power to implement the elements of value-led education in their practice. From the epistemological view of critical realism, I want to know how teachers perceive their role in relation to imparting educational values as one of the main directions of trilingual education policy in Kazakhstan aslso viewed as curriculum-based values. As it is described, critical realists admit the possibility of multiple valid interpretations of the same phenomenon (Maxwell and Mittapalli, 2010). That is why the phenomenon of trilingual education policy and its constituencies might differentiate in teachers’ viewpoints which might hypothetically be caused by their personal viewpoints, ideologies, agency, and power they either possess and exercise or do not.

The present quantitative study is a secondary data analysis of lower secondary foreign language school teachers’ professional development from 30 OECD countries who participated in the 2018 Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS). The analysis focuses on the OECD countries as they subscribe to shared educational aims of promoting policies that will improve the economic and social wellbeing of people in the member states (OECD, 2013).

The data analysis aims to cross-nationally estimate foreign language (FL) teachers’ self-efficacy and how it is related to continuous professional development (CPD) across the countries as perceived by the participants of the survey in terms of its content, form, impact on teaching practices and to review what types of CPD are crucial for teachers in order to promote, sustain teachers' CPD and keep them up to date as “teachers are called upon not only to acquire new knowledge and skills but also to develop them continuously” (Teachers’ professional development 2010:12).

This study uses three research questions to investigate the correlation between the CPD and teacher self-efficacy. These research questions include the following:

1.How much of the variation in FL teachers’ self-efficacy can be explained by differences between school and teachers’ characteristics across the OECD countries?

2. Which teacher and school characteristics explain variations in lower secondary school teachers of FL self-efficacy?

3. What types of professional development activities explain variations in teacher self-efficacy?

The secondary data analysis not only endeavors to extend evidence about relationship between CPD and FL teachers’ self-efficacy but also presents compelling support for the cross-national investigation as only a small number of studies cross nationally examine these issues in the field of foreign language teaching. A greater understanding of the relation between different areas included into CPD and teacher efficacy beliefs may be valuable to those who develop, deliver, and evaluate foreign language teachers’ preparation, accreditation, and certification programs.

In order to provide a solid conceptual foundation for this secondary analysis, different research on the relationship between CPD and FL teachers’ self-efficacy have been reviewed. A range of previous research has highlighted the contribution of CPD towards teacher self-efficacy. According to Darling-Hammond et.al (2017), professional development aims to expand teacher knowledge and might impact teachers' practices, self-efficacy and, as a result, student learning outcomes. Although self-efficacy has been extensively researched, comparatively few studies have directly examined self-efficacy within the field of language learning and teaching. In investigating teacher efficacy in this area, research examined teacher self-efficacy in a number of cross-cultural contexts exploring the correlation between FL teachers’ self-efficacy and their CPD, demographic variables (qualification, years of experience, gender) and second language proficiency (Atay, 2007; Chacon, 2005; Göker, 2006; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007; Swanson, 2010a; Tsui & Kennedy, 2009; Choi & Lee, 2016, Thompson, 2020).

The conceptual framework for this secondary data analysis draws on Thomson’s (2020) conceptual framework of the Japanese FL teacher efficacy beliefs. Modified from Borg’s conceptual framework of teacher cognition for FL teacher self-efficacy beliefs (Borg. 2006) and integrated triadic reciprocal causation from Bandura’s social cognitive theory (1977, 1986), Thomson’s (2020) conceptual framework is a solid foundation for the current research as it enables the researcher to explore the correlations between personal factors (self-beliefs), environmental factors (teaching context) and behaviours (teaching activities). The present research also adopts Bray & Thomas’s (1995) model of multilevel analysis which enables the researcher to compare the relations between constructs engaging different dimensions. Two dimensions have been employed in the current research: personal factors of teachers (individual level) and environmental factors (school level and country level).

Professional development for educators in higher education is a field with a growing international awareness (Irby & O'Sullivan, 2017; Vanderlinde et al., 2016). However, organizational initiatives for such development in higher education are complex when the intention is to involve all faculty members, covering various aspects such as technology, organizational development and teaching (Camblin & Steger, 2000). In general, the term 'onboarding' is used for initiatives focusing on new employees (Bauer, 2015). The onboarding is important for the assimilation of new staff and their well-being (Ellis et. al., 2015).

The focus of this study is the onboarding and the further process for new assistant professors at a large university college. The framework conditions have changed due to a new strategic initiative (2022) establishing a central organizational unit, the Educational Academy, tasked with leading and hosting professional development for all educators across the college's campuses in seven cities. The college, with approximately 2000 employees and 40,000 students, offers professional bachelor programs in fields such as nursing, teacher education, business administration, engineering, and computer graphics.

Due to stakeholder-interests, e.g. among those who previously managed the mandatory program on teaching skills for assistant professors, the initiative introduces both potentials and tensions within the organization (Duch & Nielsen, 2023). In 2023 the Educational Academy among other things initiated a completely redesigned program for assistant professors. This paper focuses on the initial development as professional educator from the perspective of the assistant professors within this program. The aim is to track the professional development of assistant professors transitioning towards being associate professors, exploring the shift from their previous identity, and understanding of teaching, which is influenced by diverse educational backgrounds and job experiences. The research seeks to answer the following questions: 1) How do new assistant professors perceive their role as an educator at a university college? 2) How do assistant professors with diverse educational backgrounds and work experiences understand the profession they are educating for? 3) How do they perceive to be supported in their development in the program for assistant professors at the Educational Academy?

Theoretical inspiration is drawn from Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner (2015), who utilize the metaphor of learning in a landscape and the concept of boundary crossing. Wenger (1999) previously introduced the term 'broker' to comprehend the relationship between different contexts, each hosting distinct communities of practice. He discusses 'boundary objects' as "artifacts, documents, terms, concepts, and other forms of reification around which communities of practice can organize their interconnections" (Wenger, 1999, p. 105). The process of becoming a professional educator in higher education can be viewed as a journey from legitimate peripheral participation to achieving full membership. This journey unfolds in a new landscape with multiple boundaries to traverse. By observing assistant professors throughout the transition period, we can witness the development of meaningfulness, identity, and collaboration with colleagues within the program where they are teaching and in the context of the activities designed by the Educational Academy.

Research indicates that content focus, active learning, coherence, duration, and collective participation are crucial elements in professional development (Desimone, 2009). However, for a program designed for diverse educators in higher education and not limited to teacher educators, where we know most from previous research (MacPhail et al., 2018; Vanderlinde et al., 2016), the transition from being social worker, engineer, nurse, etc., based on varied educational backgrounds, is equally significant. Additionally, the ongoing changes in vocational education (Smeby, 2013) play a crucial role. These changes may influence identity development on micro and macro levels, encompassing personal identity, professional identity, and identity within the profession (Wackerhausen, 2009; Heggen, 2013; Nielsen et al., 2023).

Teacher educators, responsible for educating both prospective and in-service teachers, have been the subject of research, especially regarding their professional development. Teacher educators have a strong desire for continuous professional learning influenced by the context they work in (Czerniawski et al., 2017). However, teacher educators are only moderately satisfied with professional development opportunities, while teacher educators find opportunities in collaborative professional development and research important (McPhail et al., 2021; Van der Klink et al., 2017). Studies indicate that professional development for teacher educators is often self-initiated and induction in the profession is frequently absent.

Research has drawn particular attention to the importance of network learning and learning communities. Both in teaching and teacher education numerous studies have shown the importance of (professional) learning communities (Hadar & Brody, 2010; Prenger et al., 2019) as a way for professional development, innovation, the quality of professional practice, and for breaking isolation within the profession. Some studies have indicated positive outcomes of participation in a (professional or networked) learning community in terms of satisfaction and impact on professional practice (Prenger et al. 2019). International comparative needs analyses of higher education-based teacher educators and school-based teacher educators (Czerniawski et al., 2017; Czerniawski et al., 2023) has built on this literature by emphasising the ways in which teacher educators, as both teachers and researchers, want to be part of a collaborative community where they can feel supported, listened to, and share their practices and experiences.

Both networks and communities of practice offer learning opportunities, but assessing the value of this learning is a complex issue. The concept of value creation is central to understanding the benefits derived from participation in such groups. De Laat et al. (2014) identify five cycles of value creation: immediate value, potential value (knowledge capital), applied value, realized value, and reframing value. To gauge the overall value added by network participation, individuals are encouraged to share their "value narratives." These narratives involve participants articulating the overall benefits of their involvement in a network or community and detailing specific instances of value creation, such as contributions to networks or improvements in professional practice.

In this study, teacher educators participating in an international professional development one-week programme, the so-called InFo-TED Summer Academy, are asked to describe their personal value narratives. The Summer academy is organized by InFo-Ted, an international forum working to promote professional development of teacher educators. This involves reflecting on the overall added value of their participation in the programme and identifying specific instances of value creation that they experienced during the programme.

The main aim of our study was to gain insight in the perceived impact of an international professional development initiative on teacher educators professional learning. In this study, we explore to what extent professional learning of teacher educators is influenced by such factors as their own values, those of their institutional context and national and international policy contexts for teacher education (Czerniawski, 2018; Lunenberg & Dengerink, 2021). Focusing on participants of the Summer Academy, the study examines how this experience broadens their value perspectives, introducing them to new roles, professional contacts, and institutional expectations, thereby enriching their professional development.

In an ever-evolving society and consequently school context, teachers are increasingly challenged. It is important for a teacher to continue professional development to meet the needs of his students (Desimone, 2009). To achieve teacher professional development, the importance of long-term professional development initiatives is demonstrated (Merchie et al., 2018). However, a sustained and ongoing implementation of long-term professional development initiatives in the school context are often uncertain (Stoll et al., 2006). In the context of lifelong learning, it is, however, essential to examine how active professional development initiatives can autonomously persist to ensure their sustainability. In this study, sustainability of professional development initiatives is conceptualised as their capacity to endure and remain effective over the long term (van der Klink, 2023). This study aims to investigate the conditions that can contribute to the sustainable continuity of Teacher Design Teams (TDTs). A TDT is described by Handelzalts (2009) as ‘a group of at least two teachers, from the same or related subjects, working together regularly, with the goal to (re)design and enact (a part of) their common curriculum’ (p. 7). More specifically, a TDT can be seen as a type of Professional Learning Community in which teachers engage in professional development by collaboratively designing curriculum materials for active use in the classroom (Binkhorst et al., 2015) Different studies (e.g., Binkhorst et al., 2015; Voogt et al., 2016) demonstrate which conditions have a specific impact on the professional development of teachers and the designed curriculum materials. However, it is also crucial to ensure the continuation of this professional development and explore conditions that can contribute to the sustainability of the TDTs.

This research is conducted in the context of the Project Integrated General Subjects (PGS), a course in vocational secondary education in Flanders (Belgium). This course integrates general subjects in a meaningful and project-based manner, aligning with the real-world and professional experiences of vocational students. PGS provides an interesting context for this study as it faces significant teacher turnover (Sierens et al., 2017). The sustainability of TDTs becomes an even greater challenge in this setting, given the necessity for the TDT to continue and be effective despite changes in teaching staff.

Creativity has become a buzzword across all disciplines in education and across all phases. In this panel discussion, we will discuss the key tenets of what it means to be creative whilst also exploring the how creativity may be fostered in educational settings. The aim of the panel discussion is to offer tools, strategies, ideas, and food for thought on fostering creativity amongst learners so they may foster creativity amongst their own learners.

Creativity is a complex yet universal phenomenon (Shao et al., 2019). Most people feel confident in recognising creativity and what constitutes creativity, with many thinking that they are creative in some way or other. The internet is awash with quotes on creativity attributed to scientific geniuses, old masters, artistic highflyers, successful entrepreneurs, and celebrities. However, when it comes to defining "creativity" we seem to struggle to put into words what it is that is required to "be" creative, how to "do" creativity, and often end up linking creativity to aesthetic artfulness or the processes of making (Sefton-Green and Sinker, 2000). In the context of education, publications explore the relationship between creativity, technology, and education (Henriksen et al., 2018), the link between creativity and environmental sustainability (Cheng, 2019), the role that school environments play regarding the development of creativity in education (Ahmadi et al., 2019), and, more broadly, the relationship that creativity plays in contemporary education (e.g., Kaplan, 2019). Research has also been undertaken to consider student and pupil experience of creativity (e.g., Matraeva et al., 2020).

In this presentation, we will outline the role of creativity in education, and what it means to be a creative thinker and learner in the 21^st century. Rather than focussing on creativity among pupils, we emphasise the training and formation of future teachers and educationalists so that they will be equipped to foster creativity among their learners. Thus, we will share some of the practical strategies and initiatives used to train and support future educationalists in different educational contexts and country settings.

We begin by drawing on two main approaches to considering creativity: a socio-cultural manifesto (Glăveanu et al., 2020) and the third draft of the Creative Thinking Framework (OECD, 2019). Creativity is a psychological, social, and material phenomenon, is culturally mediated action, dynamic in its meaning and practice, meaningful and relational and fundamental for society (Glăveanu et al., 2020). And as such creativity, can be divided into "Big C" and "little c" creativity, thus deep expertise, higher level thinking on the one hand and everyday creativity on the other (OECD, 2019). We then introduce some specific examples from different countries and educational settings: Sweden, South Korea, Qatar, Chile, United States, China, and Aotearoa New Zealand.

We conclude our presentation with reflections on the complexity of educational settings and the dynamism of changing environments. We suggest that to prepare the next generation as twenty-first-century learners, we need to use creativity to rethink, restructure, recreate and reimagine solutions for a wide range of problems.

The presentation focuses specifically on the professional learning and development of educationalists in different countries. We show how the creative tasks and activities help improve adults' and children's learning, and under which conditions creativity becomes embedded in the professional learning and development of future educationalists. By focussing on a range of educational settings (initial teacher education for primary and secondary schools, educationalists training in and for higher education, library contexts), we demonstrate that fragmentation and difference in teaching and learning approaches may be an opportunity, as we learn from one another and develop professional development programmes in our contexts and settings.

This symposium series, consisting of three consecutive symposia (3x90 min), is organised by the European network Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME) which has been organised as a network project of the Network 1 “Professional Learning and Development” of EERA since 2021. The aim of the network is to bring together researchers interested in supporting and mentoring new teachers during the induction phase. The network has organised various meetings of researchers to promote cooperation between researchers working on mentoring and induction practices, not only at the ECER conference, but also, for example, at the NERA conference. The network is also in the process of editing a European anthology of this research.

A variety of research and development work on induction and mentoring is explored as a part of teachers’ continuing professional learning and development within a broader ecosystem of educational practices. The research is based on the assumption that induction and mentoring are seen as part of teachers' ongoing professional learning and development and as part of a wider set of practices that can be called an ecosystem of professional development.

The Part 1 of this three-part symposium delves into the multifaceted landscape of teacher development practices across Romania, Moldova, Norway, and Armenia, offering a comprehensive examination of emerging trends and challenges of mentoring practices.

The first paper opens with an analysis of teacher mentoring and induction practices in Romania and Moldova, emphasizing the construction of these concepts in educational policy discourse. By scrutinizing 129 documents, including policy papers, research studies, and conference proceedings, the study reveals variations in implementation and interpretation. Employing the theory of practice architectures, the presenters unravel the non-linear dynamics of mentoring practices, highlighting geopolitical nuances and the impact on beginning teachers' participation.

The second paper discusses teacher education partnerships in Norway, highlighting the critical components for success: skilled leadership, professional learning, and a supporting infrastructure. While positively perceived, partnership models differ, necessitating a rethinking of the connection between campus courses and field experiences. Drawing on historical developments and recent initiatives, the presentation advocates for alignment between partnerships for local competence development and teacher education.

In the third paper, the exploration is extended to Norway's comprehensive revision of teacher education program, introducing a 5-year master-level qualification. The study reveals a research gap in understanding how their acquired research-based competence is acknowledged and supported by school leaders. The theoretical framework of practice architectures guides the analysis, emphasizing the need for informed preparation and inclusive practices during the induction phase. The paper advocates for increased collaboration between NQTs and school leaders.

The fourth paper shifts the focus to Armenia, exploring the conceptualization and practical frameworks of teacher induction and mentoring. The qualitative exploratory study unveils the unique landscape of mentoring practices, emphasizing its role in supporting continuing teachers new to the school. Amidst recent educational reforms, the study probes into the affordances and constraints for induction and mentoring, shedding light on the evolving policy discourses within the Armenian educational system.

We examined teacher mentoring and induction practices in Romania and Moldova, focusing on how these concepts are constructed in educational policy discourse. While both countries recognize mentoring and induction in their policies, variations exist in their implementation and interpretation. Our data set comprised 129 documents, 81 of which are from Romania and 48 from Moldova. Policy documents, research studies, conference proceedings, nationally implemented projects, and international reports are the several categories into which documents in our data set fall. The time frame under investigation is 2011– June 2023 for Romania and 2014– June 2023 for Moldova. Furthermore, we carried out several case studies, specifically concentrating on teacher mentorship and induction, and analyzed 11 thematic initiatives in Romania since 2011 and 4 projects in Moldova. To further our knowledge, we revisited interviews with starting teachers from previous studies (Mitescu-Lupu, 2012; Mitescu, 2014). The positions theory (Davies & Harré, 1990) and architecture of practice theory (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) were employed in data analysis. Our findings indicate that Moldova views induction as a supportive service, while Romania sees it as supervision. Romania has re-examined mentoring to reshape it as a support strategy but struggles with its implementation. The questions we address in this presentation are: what explains the non-linearity of emerging mentoring and induction practices, and how does it impact beginning teachers’ participation in mentoring? We contend that geopolitical nuances are essential in understanding the relationship between mentoring practices and the conditions in the countries we looked at, where we found that policy alignment often lacks critique and serves political communication strategies. Policy discourse in Romania emphasizes European norms without critical engagement, while in Moldova, alignment reflects a shift away from post-Soviet affiliations. These practices shape teacher identities. Changing mentoring practices requires changing practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014). As policies alone prove insufficient to prompt immediate transformations of mentoring practices, we discuss a number of potentially recommendable directions of action, such as the open communication between policymakers, practitioners, and researchers; reassessment of knowledge production and circulation practices in education, along with identifying steps towards decolonizing and diversifying these practices; critically reflecting on conceptualizations of mentoring and induction all categories of participants in these practices operate with. We conclude that mentoring practices' effectiveness depends on the infrastructure of support, training, and communication. Long-term, sustained transformations are needed to support diverse participation and conceptualize changes in mentoring and induction practices in both countries.

Davies, B., & Harré, R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the theory of social behavior, 20 (1), 43-63. Kemmis, S. & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In s. Kemmis & T.J. Smith (eds.) Enabling praxis: Challenges for education, pp. 37 -64. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H. L., Fransson, G., Aspfors, J., & Edwards-Groves, C. (2014). Mentoring of new teachers as a contested practice: Supervision, support and collaborative self-development. Teaching and teacher education, 43, 154-164. Mitescu-Lupu, M. (2012) Învățare și profesionalizare în domeniul didactic, Editura Univ. Al.I.Cuza, Iași, România. Mitescu, M. (2014). A Synopsis on Teachers' Learning during Early Stages of Professional Practice. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 149, 595-601, DOI:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.08.233.

Sub-paper had to be withdrawn

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Norway undertook a comprehensive revision of its teacher education programs in 2017, introducing a 5-year master-level qualification for primary and secondary school teachers to address challenges in schools. These challenges included low student performance in core subjects and criticisms of teacher education for being fragmented and too general (Trippestad et al., 2017). The revised programs now emphasize subject specialization in three or four subjects and the development of teachers' research knowledge in scientific theories and methods. This shift aims to better prepare teachers for continuous professional development. However, a significant research gap exists regarding how Norwegian Newly Qualified Teachers (NQTs) with master's degrees experience leadership practices, posing a potential risk that their research-based competence may not be effectively utilized in educational settings. The current research question is whether and how the research-based competence acquired during teacher education is acknowledged and supported by school leaders for NQTs. The theoretical framework employed for analysis is the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008), emphasizing practices as social phenomena and highlighting three intersubjective spaces where participants interact: through language, in the material world's space-time, and in social relationships. Data collection involves two studies: 1. STEP Study: Conducted through semi-structured interviews (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2018) with eight principals in 2023, focusing on how principals perceive and support NQTs during their initial years of practice. 2. RELEMAST Study: Semi-structured interviews with 27 NQTs at intervals of one, two, three, and five years after completing a piloted master's level teacher education at UiT the Arctic University in Norway from 2015 to 2017. Specific guides developed for each year to capture changes in NQTs' experiences of using research-based knowledge during professional development and how it is received by their leadership. Data analysis follows the thematic approach (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Principals express positivity toward NQTs' new research-based competence but lack in-depth knowledge about it. While supportive of established traditions, they demonstrate a lack of initiative in utilizing this competence during the induction phase. Some NQTs themselves seem to contribute new knowledge to the schools. However, principals often maintain distant relationships with NQTs, delegating support to mentors or teams. There is a notable absence of arenas for NQTs to contribute their competence, indicating a gap in informing and preparing schools and principals for the arrival and inclusion of new NQTs and their unique competencies.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Brinkmann, S., & Kvale, S. (2018). Doing Interviews. Retrieved from http://digital.casalini.it/9781526426093 Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situation praxis in practic. In S. Kemmis & T. J. Smith (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pedagory, education and praxis) (pp. 37‐62). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Werler, T. (2017). Learning Sciences reconfiguring Authority in Teacher Education. In T. A. Trippestad, A. Swennen, & T. Werler (Eds.), The Struggle for Teacher Education. International Perspectives on Governance and Reforms (pp. 131-147). Bloomsbury Publising.

Generally, mentoring is seen as a supportive strategy for beginning teachers (Pennanen et al., 2015, European Commission, 2010). Mentoring has become the most popular form of teacher induction, impacting the interchangeable use of mentoring and induction (Ingersoll and Smith, 2004). However, the loose utilisation of these terms in the literature suggests a conceptual confusion about their employment. Hence, mentoring has been described as a poorly defined practice that is weakly conceptualised and theorised (Colley, 2003, Bozeman and Feeney, 2007). There is a growing literature that theorises mentoring as social practice (Kemmis, Heikkinen, et al., 2014), hence it is understood as a special kind of social practice that exists amid other social practices (Heikkinen, 2020). Within that understanding, I’ll introduce mentoring and induction practices by presenting their special characteristics and historical developments within the studied educational and political settings. In Armenia, mentoring is also seen as a means of supporting continuing teachers who are new to the school, not to the system. Moreover, mentoring and induction are not officially regulated by the relevant laws (UNICEF, 2022) but highly depend on individual school arrangements and regulations. In this study, I explore the notion of teacher induction and mentoring within the Armenian educational system to reveal the conceptualisation and practical frameworks that underpin induction and mentoring. In the framework of recent educational reforms in Armenia, there is a growing interest in induction and mentoring in policy discourses in the country, particularly within the context of SEN education, continuous teacher development, and teacher shortage. This is a qualitative exploratory study aiming to understand the state of mentoring and induction within the Armenian educational system, understand the conceptualisation of those two notions within various educational documents, and examine the affordances and constraints for induction and mentoring. To this end, I address the following research question: How are the concepts of induction and mentoring, their function and their relationship to teacher continuous professional learning and development conceptualised at the levels of policy and practice? Using the theory of practice architecture (Kemmis and Grootenboer, 2008) I will explore the specific material-economic, social-political and cultural-discursive arrangements to understand the internationally recognisable conceptualisations of mentoring and induction to be able to examine and explain conceptualisations of those two notions within Armenian educational landscape. The data for this analysis consists of policy documents, reviews of research literature and national/international reports documenting teachers’ participation and approaches to mentoring and induction.

Colley, H. (2003). “Engagement Mentoring for ‘Disaffected’ Youth: A New Model of Mentoring for Social Inclusion.” British Educational Research Journal 29 (4): 521–542. Heikkinen, H. L. T. (2020). Understanding mentoring within an ecosystem of practices. In K.-R. Olsen, E. M. Bjerkholt & H. L. T. Heikkinen (Eds.), New teachers in Nordic countries – ecologies of mentoring and induction (Ch. 1, pp. 27–47). Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk. Ingersoll, R. M., and T. M. Smith. (2004). “Do Teacher Induction and Mentoring Matter?” NASSP Bulletin88: 28 40.10.1177/019263650408863803 Kemmis, S. and Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situating praxis in practice: practice architectures and the cultural, social and material conditions for practice. In s. Kemmis & T.J. Smith (eds.) enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pp. 37 -64). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H. L., Fransson, G., Aspfors, J., and Edwards-Groves, C. (2014). Mentoring of new teachers as a contested practice: Supervision, support and collaborative self-development. Teaching and teacher education, 43, 154-164 Pennanen, M., Bristol, L., Wilkinson, J., and Heikkinen, H.L.T (2015). What is ‘good’ mentoring? Understanding mentoring practices of teacher induction through case studies of Finland and Australia. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2015.1083045

This symposium series, consisting of three consecutive symposia, is organised by the European network Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME) which has been organised as a network project of the Network 1 “Professional Learning and Development” of EERA since 2021. The aim of the network is to bring together researchers interested in supporting and mentoring new teachers during the induction phase. The network has organised various meetings of researchers to promote cooperation between researchers working on mentoring and induction practices, not only at the ECER conference, but also, for example, at the NERA conference. The network is also in the process of editing a European anthology of this research.

A variety of research and development work on induction and mentoring is explored as a part of teachers’ continuing professional learning and development within a broader ecosystem of educational practices. The research is based on the assumption that induction and mentoring are seen as part of teachers' ongoing professional learning and development and as part of a wider set of practices that can be called an ecosystem of professional development.

The Part 2 of this three-part symposium presents three studies on innovative mentoring programs and their impact on mentors, mentees, and the educational community at large, with a special focus on education of mentors as a common unifying element.

The first study, part of the NEST project, investigates a mentoring program across seven European education systems, specifically targeting teachers in disadvantaged schools. The adaptive mentor training was designed to address the unique needs of mentored teachers. The study, involving 229 mentors and 1,603 beginning teachers, assesses changes in mentor practices and the perceived fit between mentoring practices and mentee needs. Results show a positive shift in mentor practices over time, with the intervention group reporting higher satisfaction in the alignment between practices and needs.

The second paper explores the experiences of teachers participating in a school-based mentor education program within a University-School partnership project. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study reveals insights into professional learning (PL) and the application of mentoring competence in practice. The findings highlight the positive influence of school-based and collective mentor education on individual and collective professional learning, emphasizing the integration of mentor education into schools and its potential as a form of continuing professional learning for teachers.

The third study delves into context-based mentoring training through nine case studies from the Promentors EU Erasmus+ project, involving collaboration between Israeli colleges and European universities. Drawing on Social Emotional Competence (SEC) and Bronfenbrenner's ecological model, the study explores the unique characteristics and objectives of mentor courses developed in the program. The findings underscore the crucial role of sociocultural context in creating effective and sustainable mentor training programs, emphasizing the need for context-sensitive interventions tailored to diverse cultures and contexts.

Numerous studies show positive effects of mentoring on the mentored teachers (e.g. Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Kraft et al., 2018). The quality of the mentoring offered is important here. Crasborn et al. (2011) and Richter et al. (2013) point out that the selection of a suitable mentoring approach is a prerequisite for positive effects on the prospective teachers. The fit between mentoring practices and the needs of the mentored teachers is therefore a quality indicator for the offered mentoring. In disadvantaged schools, it is particularly crucial to promote the professional development of teachers (Hall et al., 2020). A mentoring approach that addresses the specific needs of trainee teachers could potentially reduce teacher shortages and improve teaching quality. The research project NEST (Novice Educator Support and Training) implements a mentoring program in seven European education systems (e.g. Catalonia, Bulgaria, Romania) aimed at teachers in disadvantaged schools and tries to ensure better support for the needs of mentored teachers through adaptive mentor training. The paper examines the following research questions: 1. Do the mentors' practices change after the first training period (and during the second school year)? 2. Is there a better fit between mentoring practices and mentee needs in the novice teacher intervention group compared to the control group? A total of 229 mentors took part in the surveys on the overall project (179 of them in the intervention group, who received mentor training). The mentors in the intervention group were surveyed three times (before the training, after the first and second project year) using online questionnaires. Furthermore, a total of 1,603 beginning teachers (957 were in control groups with and without mentors) were surveyed twice (at the beginning and end of the 2021/22 and 2022/23 school years). Among other things, all groups were asked about mentoring practices. The items on mentoring styles used were based on Crasborn et al. (2008; 2011). To investigate whether the mentors' practices change over time and how well the beginning teachers assess the fit between the practices used by their mentors and their own needs, t tests were calculated. For mentors, we found an overall tendency towards a decrease in directive practices and an increase in facilitative practices. Furthermore, the intervention group is more satisfied with the fit of the practices than the respective control cohort if a significant change in the practices of the mentors was also visible during the time period.

Crasborn, F., Hennissen, P., Brouwer, N., Korthagen, F., & Bergen, T. (2008): Promoting versatility in mentor teachers’ use of supervisory skills. Teaching and Teacher Education 24 (3), S. 499–514. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2007.05.001. Crasborn, F., Hennissen, P., Brouwer, N., Korthagen, F., & Bergen, T. (2011): Exploring a two-dimensional model of mentor teacher roles in mentoring dialogues. Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2), S. 320–331. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2010.08.014. Hall, C., Lundin, M., & Sibbmark, K. (2022). Strengthening Teachers in Disadvantaged Schools: Evidence from an Intervention in Sweden's Poorest City Districts. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(2), 208–224. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2020.1788154 Ingersoll, R. M. & Strong, M. (2011). The impact of induction and mentoring programs for beginning teachers. Review of Educational Research, 81 (2), 201-233. Kraft, M. A., Blazar, D. & Hogan, D. (2018). The effect of teacher coaching on instruction and achievement: A meta-analysis of the causal evidence. Review of Educational Research, 88 (4), 547-588. Richter, D.; Kunter, M.; Lüdtke, O.; Klusmann, U.; Anders, Y.; Baumert, J. (2013). How different mentoring approaches affect beginning teachers' development in the first years of practice. In Teaching and Teacher Education 36, pp. 166–177. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2013.07.012.

Mentoring has been described as a key strategy for supporting teachers who are beginning their career (Jones, 2009), and the focus of research has often been the mentee receiving mentoring and the mentoring process itself (Walters et al., 2020). Internationally, concerns have been raised about the need to place greater attention on mentors, how they are prepared for their role, and mentor education (Hobson et al., 2009; Ulvik & Sunde, 2013). Studies that explore the ways in which mentoring can benefit mentors and emphasize the professional needs and knowledge of mentors have been called for (Aspfors & Fransson, 2015; Fredriksen & Halse, 2022; Walters et al., 2020). In response, this paper focuses on the teachers taking mentor education and explores their experience of professional learning (PL) and the use of mentoring competence in practice. Moreover, it provides knowledge about organizing mentor education collectively and in a school-based manner, as well as the value of creating professional learning communities (PLCs) of mentors in schools. The context of this presentation is a University-School partnership project in which four schools completed a mentor-education program that was school-based and involved collective participation. The study is based on a mixed methods research design with quantitative and qualitative data collected at the four University-Schools. Data have been obtained through a quantitative survey (N = 83) and qualitative focus group interviews (N = 9) in the final semester of mentor education. In addition, a qualitative open-ended survey (N = 17) was distributed 2 years after the mentor education was completed. The analysis of the results revealed that teachers’ experiences of individual and collective PL through a school-based mentor-education program are characterized by the following: 1) new knowledge about mentoring and communication, 2) the use and application of mentor education in practice, 3) school-based and collective collaboration, and 4) the extended use of mentoring competence. Taking mentor education in a school-based and collective manner has resulted in mentor education being integrated into schools, and teachers’ PL is positively influenced by having to interact and collaborate with colleagues persistently over time. This thesis offers empirical contributions to research on mentor education, mentors, and the role of mentoring competence for teachers and schools. Overall, it provides evidence showing the potential of professional learning through mentor education and the use of mentoring in practice, thus showing that mentor education should be prioritized as a form of continuing professional learning for teachers.

Aspfors, J., & Fransson, G. (2015). Research on mentor education for mentors of newly qualified teachers: A qualitative meta-synthesis. Teaching and Teacher Education, 48, 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.02.004 Fredriksen, L. L., & Halse, E. (2022). Uddannelse til kompetente mentorer for nyuddannede lærere. Studier i læreruddannelse og -profession, 7(2), 53–76. https://doi.org/10.7146/lup.v7i2.132894 Hobson, A. J., Ashby, P., Malderez, A., & Tomlinson, P. D. (2009). Mentoring beginning teachers: What we know and what we don’t. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(1), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.001 Jones, M. (2009). Supporting the supporters of novice teachers: An analysis of mentors’ needs from twelve European countries presented from an English perspective. Research in Comparative and International Education, 4(1), 4-21. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/rcie.2009.4.1.4 Ulvik, M., & Sunde, E. (2013). The impact of mentor education: Does mentor education matter? Professional Development in Education, 39(5), 754–770. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2012.754783

The value of mentoring for new teachers has been a topic of interest worldwide (Olsen et al. 2020). Effective mentoring promotes positive outcomes for all stakeholders: the new teachers, the school and the mentors themselves resulting in job satisfaction and retention in the workplace (Richmond et al., 2020). Thus, developing good, sustainable training programs for mentors has become a desired goal in many educational settings (Parker et al, 2021). The literature on mentoring point at the existence of multiple training models, using additional terms such as coaching, guiding, advising, supervising, supporting and more, all seeking to improve mentoring systems in the educational framework (Betlem et al. 2018). Mentor training programs are difficult to compare or evaluate due to differences in content, settings and cultures. Studies have shown that professionalization of mentoring training and creating partnerships promote co-construction of knowledge and provide optimal support for both mentors and mentees (Tonna et al. 2017; Wexler, 2019). There is need for context-sensitive mentor training, intervention training programs tailored for culture and context. This presentation will report on nine case studies from Promentors EU Erasmus project, which aimed to develop unique mentors training models for teachers. Nine colleges from Israel and four European universities participated in this project. Based on theories within Social Emotional Competence (SEC) (e.g., Collie, 2020), and on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological model, and using qualitative case study methods of analysis (Hamilton & Cobett-Whittier, 2013) this study details objectives, curriculum and unique characteristics of mentor courses developed in the program. We investigated individual, organizational, and environmental factors related to the programs each college developed highlighting what specializes them from other more ‘traditional’ mentors’ courses. Findings show that the role of sociocultural context is crucial in creating effective sustainable mentor training programs that operate as a continuum between the academia (teacher preparation), teachers’ knowledge base, sense of preparedness and assimilation of new teachers in the workplace. It similarly contributes to the professional development of the mentors themselves. Ecological school culture and the surrounding socio-cultural context express the environments within which effective mentoring training and practices take place. We discuss the ways in which knowledge of mentoring training is distributed across different resources, places, organizations and in the culture of teaching. Implications highlight the value of context-sensitive mentor training, or intervention training programs tailored for cultures and contexts.

Betlem, E., Clary, D. & Jones, M., (2018) Mentoring the Mentor: Professional development through a school-university partnership. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 47(4), 327-346. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Collie, R.J. (2020). Social and emotional competence: advancing understanding of what, for whom, and when. Educational Psychology, 40, 663-665. Hamilton, L. & Cobett-Whittier, C. (2013). Using case Study in Education Research. London: Sage. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E.M. & Heikkinen, H.L.T., (2020), New teachers in Nordic countries: Ecologies of mentoring and induction, Cappellen Damm Akademisk. Parker, A.K., Zenkov, K., & Glaser, H. (2021). Preparing school-based teacher educators: mentor teachers’ perceptions of mentoring and mentor. Peabody Journal of Education, 96(1), 65–75. Richmond, G., Bartell, T.G., Floden, R.E., & Jones, N. D. (2020). How research sheds light on the pivotal role of mentors in teacher preparation. Journal of Teacher Education, 71(1), 6–8. Tonna, M.A., Bjerkholt, E. and Holland, E., (2017), Teacher mentoring and the reflective practitioner approach. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 6(3), 210-227. Wexler, L.J. (2019). Working together within a system: educative mentoring and novice teacher learning. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 27, 44-67.

This symposium series, consisting of three consecutive symposia, is organised by the European network Ecologies of Teacher Induction and Mentoring in Europe (TIME) which has been organised as a network project of the Network 1 “Professional Learning and Development” of EERA since 2021. The aim of the network is to bring together researchers interested in supporting and mentoring new teachers during the induction phase. The network has organised various meetings of researchers to promote cooperation between researchers working on mentoring and induction practices, not only at the ECER conference, but also, for example, at the NERA conference. The network is also in the process of editing a European anthology of this research.

A variety of research and development work on induction and mentoring is explored as a part of teachers’ continuing professional learning and development within a broader ecosystem of educational practices. The research is based on the assumption that induction and mentoring are seen as part of teachers' ongoing professional learning and development and as part of a wider set of practices that can be called an ecosystem of professional development.

The Part 3 of this three-part symposium introduces the results of the collaborative research in the Nordic countries on mentoring and induction. The first presentation of this symposium introduces the network Nordic Teacher Induction network (NTI), a collaboration network on induction and mentoring newly qualified teachers in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The historical account starts from early 2000’s and move to today, towards the latest project “Promoting Professional Development” (NTI-PPD).

The second presentation explores the current state of mentoring and induction, comparing legislation and working conditions related to professional work in the Nordics. By emphasizing the perspectives of students and new teachers, the presentation examines the need for induction and its inclusion in a comprehensive system for continuous professional development. The collaborative efforts between teachers' trade unions, educators, and researchers play a pivotal role in shaping policy changes and garnering political attention in the educational landscape.

The third presentation builds upon the mapping work of the NTI network, delving into the evolving landscapes of mentor education in Nordic countries and Estonia. Exploring the unique practices, challenges, and opportunities, the study reflects on the changes observed in mentor education programs over nearly two decades of NTI collaboration. Key questions about the content and effectiveness of mentor education, its link to professional development cycles, and its significance in contexts grappling with teacher recruitment and retention issues are addressed. The presentation also investigates the research landscape surrounding mentor education and its impact on mentors and schools.

The fourth presentation employs the theory of practice architectures (TPA) to theorize teacher induction policies, mentoring practices, and the unique situations in the Nordic countries and Estonia. By examining the cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political arrangements influencing mentoring and induction practices, the TPA offers a theoretical lens to identify conditions of possibility in educational settings. The study uncovers the enabling and constraining factors that shape mentoring and induction practices for newly qualified teachers, contributing to a nuanced understanding of the intricate dynamics at play.

This symposium studies experiences of cross-sectoral cooperation to develop mentoring in the Nordic countries. The network started as a joint project between universities and teacher educators but was expanded to include teacher unions. The network brings together researchers, teacher educators and teacher union representatives from the Nordics (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). We start with the historical perspective from early 2000’s and move to today, and our latest project Promoting Professional Development (PPD). The network roots back to 2004 when the Newly Qualified Teachers in Northern Europe network was established, consisting of researchers of mentoring from all these countries. In 2017, the network was joined by teacher union representatives from the aforementioned countries, thus becoming more cross-sectoral and deliberately taking a more visible role in policy making in terms of teachers’ professional development. Since 2017, the network has implemented three collaboration projects funded by Nordplus. The network has published a book applying the theory of ecologies of practices to the study of induction and mentoring (Bjerkholt, Olsen & Heikkinen 2020). The present collaborative project NTI-PPD aims at investigating how the practices of teacher induction and mentoring of new teachers are prefigured (enabled/constrained) in the Nordic countries and Estonia as part of continuous professional development. Through our collaboration, we wish to contribute developing practices of mentoring and induction through analyses of existing practices and research-based knowledge. The collaboration between different partners in the wider education community will create a deeper understanding and contribute to a greater diversity, which in turn provides new knowledge and approaches in the educational continuum. Another aim is to strengthen the Nordic and Baltic voice in international policymaking and public discourse related to induction and mentoring, and this collaboration between researchers and teacher unions will enable discussions that focus on research as well as experience-based knowledge on how to establish sustainable systems, highlighting diversity and tensions in our different practices and experiences. One of the goals is to share the experiences and research through different channels in our respective networks, and thus contribute to the public discussion on relevant topics such as professional development as a continuum from teacher education into the profession, sustainable comprehensive induction and mentoring for NQTs, and possibilities to stop the attrition rate of NQTs leaving the profession. The network has also taken an active role in developing a European dimension of mentoring and induction research.

Fransson, G. & Gustafsson, K. (2008). Newly Qualified Teachers in Northern Europe. Gävle: University of Gävle. Kemmis, S. (2023). Education for Living Well in a World Worth Living in. In K. E. Reimer, M. Kaukko, S. Windsor, K. Mahon, & S. Kemmis (Eds.), Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Volume 1: Current Practices of Social Justice, Sustainability and Wellbeing (pp. 13-26). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7985-9_1 Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H., Aspfors, J., Fransson, G. & Edwards-Groves, C. (2014a). Mentoring as Contested Practice: Support, Supervision and Collaborative Self-development. Teaching and Teacher Education 43, 154-164. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E., & Heikkinen, H.(Eds.). (2020). New teachers in Nordic countries - Ecologies of induction and mentoring Cappelen. Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.105 License: CC BY 4.0.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide an overview of how induction and mentoring for new teachers in the Nordic countries and Estonia are seen as a part of teacher professional development. We will theorise upon some of the data collected by the teacher unions in the cross-sectoral project named Nordic Teacher Induction - Promoting Professional Development (NTI-PPD) This presentation will begin with some summary data of the current state of mentoring and induction from each of the partner countries. The summaries will include a comparison of legislation and working conditions related to professional work with induction. These data help us to identify and discuss what is unique and what, if anything, is significantly different in these contexts and importantly, what the implications for professional development of teachers in each of the contexts. The professional development of teachers begins in teacher education programs; thus, the first point of comparison is to look at how professional practice is undertaken in each country. We will draw attention to what students and new teachers think about the need for induction and compare obligations to and working conditions related to professional work with induction. We also discuss experience of including mentoring and induction in a comprehensive system for continuous professional development in the teaching career. The final part of this presentation will address longstanding collaboration between teachers' trade unions, teacher educators and researchers on mentoring and induction which includes partners from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and how this collabration provides impetus for change in policy and political attention in the educational landscape in relation to mentoring and induction in each of the countries.

Aaltonen, Bäckström, Ernestam, Harsvik, Hauksson, Salmonsen, Salo, Wettendorff (2023). Teacher shortage in the Nordic countries. Comparing the current situation. NLS. DOI: teacher_shortage_nls-report_2023_final.pdf Fransson, G. & Gustafsson, K. (2008), Newly Qualified Teachers in Northern Europe. Gävle: University of Gävle. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E., & Heikkinen, H.(Eds.). (2020). New teachers in Nordic countries - Ecologies of induction and mentoring Cappelen. Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.105 License: CC BY 4.0. Svanbjörnsdóttir, B., Hauksdóttir, H., & Steingrímsdóttir, M. (2020). Mentoring in Iceland: An integral part of professional development? In K.R. Olsen, H. Heikkinen & Bjerkholt, E.M. (Eds.). New teachers in Nordic countries - Ecologies of induction and mentoring (Ch. 6, pp. 129–149). Cappelen Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.105 License: CC BY 4.0.

Mentoring is often viewed as a key professional learning tool from initial teacher education to senior leadership development. Based on the research, mentor education is a crucial contributor to the success of mentoring programmes (e.g. Ulvik & Sunde, 2013), as mentor quality is essential to effectively support the development of a novice teacher (Ellis et al., 2020). Building on the mapping work of NTI-SEM in the previous presentation and emerging research, this presentation delves into the dynamic and evolving landscapes of mentor education in Nordic countries and Estonia. The presentation will shed light on the unique practices, challenges and opportunities that shape mentoring and interplay between mentors, mentees, and the diverse environments they navigate. As the Nordic Teacher Induction (NTI) network has collaborated for nearly 20 years, we will look backward to describe how the mentor education programs have changed during these years and what has influenced these changes. We will present the current state of play in each country regarding what mentoring education is offered, how mentoring education is supported by education agencies/departments in each country, and how mentor education is possibly changing in light of new EU (Bologna) guidelines. We are looking for answers to the following questions: What kind of content is provided in mentor education, and is it fit for purpose? Is mentoring intricately linked to professional development cycles (for both mentors and mentees), and is it important in contexts with issues recruiting and retaining teachers, as we suspect? We will end this part of the symposium where we have gathered these accounts of mentoring education, looking at what research is being done on mentoring education and how mentoring education professionally develops mentors and then, in turn, schools.

Ellis, N. J., Alonzo, D., & Nguyen, H. T. M. (2020). Elements of a quality pre-service teacher mentor: A literature review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 92, 103072. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E., & Heikkinen, H.(Eds.). (2020). New teachers in Nordic countries - Ecologies of induction and mentoring Cappelen. Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.105 License: CC BY 4.0. Ulvik, M., & Sunde, E. (2013). The impact of mentor education: does mentor education matter?. Professional development in education, 39(5), 754-770.

The purpose of this presentation is to provide a theorising of the teacher induction policies and practices, and the situation of mentoring for new teachers in the Nordic countries and Estonia that has been presented in the previous presentations. Using the theory of practice architectures, the presentation identifies what mentoring and induction practices are enabled and constrained in the Nordics. The theory of practice architectures (TPA) suggests that what an individual is able to, and can in actuality, do is shaped by a wide variety of things including specific discourses, social and political relationships, and the resources or materials available (Kemmis et al., 2014ab). In other words, the TPA is a theoretical resource that allows us to identify the conditions of possibility (Kemmis, 2023) in educational settings. The theory of practice architectures posits that the enactment of practices is prefigured but not predetermined by the varied arrangements in the intersubjective space in a particular site (Kemmis et al., 2014). As the NTI network has mapped and compared mentoring and induction practices for newly qualified teachers across the Nordic region, the cultural-discursive, material–economic and social–political arrangements (Kemmis et al., 2012; Kemmis et al., 2014ab) that hold practices of mentoring and induction in place and are revealed.

Kemmis, S. & Heikkinen, H. (2012). Future perspectives: Peer-Group Mentoring and international practices for teacher development. In: H. Heikkinen, H. Jokinen & P. Tynjälä (Eds.) Peer-Group Mentoring for Teacher Development. Abingdon: Routledge, 144-170. Kemmis, S. (2023). Education for Living Well in a World Worth Living in. In K. E. Reimer, M. Kaukko, S. Windsor, K. Mahon, & S. Kemmis (Eds.), Living Well in a World Worth Living in for All: Volume 1: Current Practices of Social Justice, Sustainability and Wellbeing (pp. 13-26). Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7985-9_1 Kemmis, S., Heikkinen, H., Aspfors, J., Fransson, G. & Edwards-Groves, C. (2014a). Mentoring as Contested Practice: Support, Supervision and Collaborative Self-development. Teaching and Teacher Education 43, 154-164. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014b). Changing practices, changing education. Springer Science & Business Media. Olsen, K.R., Bjerkholt, E., & Heikkinen, H.(Eds.). (2020). New teachers in Nordic countries - Ecologies of induction and mentoring Cappelen. Damm Akademisk. https://doi.org/10.23865/noasp.105 License: CC BY 4.0.

A short presentation of the STEP project

The symposium is based on STEP, a research- and collaborative project that follows the first generation of students with a five-year master's education for primary school teachers in Norway during their last year of study and the first two years as teachers​.

The STEP project focuses on how to retain Early Career Teachers in schools, and builds on values such as equality, multi-perspectives, competences, and collaboration. The methodology is framed by Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) combined by the approach of research circles. We combine CHAT and Research Circles (RCs) to facilitate research- and experience-based dialogues for national and international policymaking.

Primary objective: STEP will develop research- and experience-based knowledge on transition from Master Initial Teacher Education (M-ITE) into the teacher profession.​

Secondary objectives:

• Identify student teachers’ expectations to the profession and school actors’ expectations to Early Career Teachers’ competence. ​
• Identify experiences of tension and recognition of Early Career Teachers’ competence in school. ​
• Ensure a continuum of professional learning for Early Career Teachers through induction and mentoring. ​

This multi-methodological project is funded by the Norwegian Research Association.

Different papers will introduce values, methodological perspectives and preliminary findings.

The papers are:

Paper 1: Partnership and Collaboration to Contribute to a Good Start to the Teaching Profession.

Paper 2: School Owners' Expectations to Early Career Teachers: Novices or Resource Persons?

Paper 3: School Employees' Experiences and Understanding of New Teachers' Research- and Development Competence

The shortages of qualified teachers, as well as the challenges in the recruitment and retention of teachers that we are facing in Norway as in the rest of Europe, reflect the imperative need to raise the attractiveness of the teaching profession and improve the retention of teachers in their profession. The main causes identified for leaving the teaching profession within the first years of practice are the feelings of isolation and the lack of support that many new teachers experiences when they start working. The partners in STEP represent different perspectives in a diverse educational community. Common to all of us is a desire to contribute to an attractive teaching profession. We believe there is potential in building a bridge between teacher training and the profession to make the transition as smooth as possible and that new teachers experience further professionalization in the profession from the very start. The novelty of STEP is the unique collaboration between researchers and stakeholders, the combination of research- and experienced based knowledge and the knowledge of policymaking in Norway and internationally. STEP aims to develop a model for collaboration between researchers and partners/stakeholders on research- and experience-based policymaking and thereby to facilitate dialogues on policymaking both nationally and internationally. In the Nordic countries, we have a long tradition of tripartite cooperation between authorities, employers, and trade unions to make good decisions. These experiences form an important background for the collaborative work in this project. The partners in STEP are together with other stakeholders now in a process to develop the national framework for mentoring new teachers in Norway. Contributing to research to develop these frameworks is also one of the aims in STEP. In this presentation we will highlight how cooperation between an employer organization, teacher union and student organization contribute to a more complex dialogue and understanding of both local, national, and international context and research. This diversity presents various legitimate interests which may cause tensions but also growth, different perspectives, and possibilities to understand complexity. We will also elaborate on what is distinctive about the teaching profession that makes professional mentoring of new teachers an important measure.

Aaltonen, Bäckström, Ernestam, Harsvik, Hauksson, Salmonsen, Salo, Wettendorff (2023). Teacher shortage in the Nordic countries. Comparing the current situation. NLS. DOI: teacher_shortage_nls-report_2023_final.pdf . Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. Delhaxhe, Arlette, Birch, Peter, Piedrafita Tremosa, Sonia, Davydovskaia, Olg, Bourgeois, Ania, Balcon, Marie-Pascale (2018). Eurydice. DOI: Teaching careers in Europe - Publications Office of the EU (europa.eu) Olsen, K-R., Bjerkholt, E. & Heikkinen, H.L.T. (Eds.)(2020). New teachers in the Nordic Countries – Ecologies of mentoring and induction. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk open access. Shanks, R., Attard Tonna, M., Krøjgaard, F., Paaske, K., Robson, D., & Bjerkholt, E. (2020). A comparative study of mentoring for new teachers. Professional Development in Education. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2020.1744684

This presentation is based on interviews with representatives of municipalities as school owners. The interviews were conducted in the spring of 2023 based on a semi-structured interview guide with the following questions: - In the autumn of 2022, the first cohort of the five-year master's education for primary school teachers started to work in schools. What expectations do you have in the short and long term (time interval of up to five years) to this new generation of schoolteachers compared with previous cohorts? - How can you, as a representative of the school owner, help to ensure that NQTs are offered mentoring and induction in line with the national principles and obligations for the supervision of NQTs? - Based on the induction schemes you have had in your municipality until now, what changes might be appropriate with regard to this new generation of teachers? - Which factors related to school culture and management at school level do you think have the greatest significance with regard to NQTs development and learning in the short and long term? - What role and significance do you think mentoring as a professional communication genre and learning strategy can have for the NQTs in the short and long term? The interviews have been transcribed and analyzed with reference to thematic analysis (Braun and Clark, 2006) and stepwise-deductive-inductive method (SDI) (Tjora, 2021). We will present the main findings from the survey. Our aim is to develop research- and experience-based knowledge when it comes to the further development and implementation of the National Framework for Mentoring and Induction for NQTs.

Brinkmann, S., & Kvale, S. (2018). Doing interviews (Vol. 2). Sage. Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2017) Thematic analysis, The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12:3, 297-298, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2016.1262613 Olsen, Knut-Rune et al. (2022) Lærerstudenters forventninger til arbeidet som profesjonelle lærere i skolen, Skriftserien fra Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, nr. 105 https://openarchive.usn.no/usn-xmlui/handle/11250/3028158 Olsen, K-R., Bjerkholt, E. & Heikkinen, H.L.T. (Eds.)(2020). New teachers in the Nordic Countries - Ecologies of mentoring and induction. Oslo: Cappelen Damm Akademisk open access Tjora, A. (2019) Qualitative Research as Stepwise-Deductive Induction. London: Routledge

Norway reformed its teacher education to a five-year master’s degree in 2017 and newly qualified teachers (NQTS) now graduate with research and development (R&D) competence. R&D competence aims to enable NQTs to use theories of science and research methodologies to evaluate and use research to develop themselves, their teaching, and the schools they work at (Toom et al., 2010). Schaefer et al. (2012) argue that we must change our focus from retaining NQTs, to sustaining them, and Kelchtermans (2017, p. 961) deconstruct the challenge of teacher attrition as “…the need to prevent good teachers from leaving the job for the wrong reasons”. Additionally, Bjørndal et al. (2020) found that NQTs from a piloted five-year teacher education experienced challenges in engaging in systematic research work due to workload and stress. The reform necessitates examining how the school support, develop, and apply NQTs’ R&D competence in their induction to professional life. I analyze semi-structured qualitative interviews (Brinkmann & Kvale, 2018) of eight NQTs, eight mentors, 16 colleagues, and seven principals from eight municipalities using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The theory of practice architectures (TPA) (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008) is used as an analytical lens. TPA posits that practices are social, situated, and shaped by three mutually influencing arrangements: the cultural-discursive, the material-economic, and the social-political (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). By analyzing these arrangements and their accompanying sayings, doings, and relatings, I identify and describe the prevalent practices that prefigure the support, development, and application of NQTs’ R&D competence. In line with the theme of “Education in an Age of Uncertainty”, I expect to uncover discrepancies between the established traditions of school development and the evolution of the teacher education, where the schools have not been able to utilize and create a “niche” (Heikkinen, 2020) for the R&D competence of NQTs. The analysis is expected to clarify the diverse and contrasting perspectives among the school employees and the NQTs about the value of R&D competence in the teacher profession. This includes insights into sayings that reflect different attitudes towards the relevancy of R&D competence, doings consisting of practical actions the schools have or have not implemented for the support, development, and application of R&D competence, and relatings which highlight interpersonal dynamics between new and older teachers. Further this paper discusses how we can sustain NQTs by positioning them as valuable contributors.

Bjørndal, K. E. W., Antonsen, Y., & Jakhelln, R. (2020). FoU-kompetansen til nyutdannede grunnskolelærere – grunnlag for skoleutvikling? Acta Didactica Norden, 14(2), 1 - 20. https://doi.org/10.5617/adno.7917 Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa Brinkmann, S., & Kvale, S. (2018). Doing Interviews. SAGE Publications Ltd. http://digital.casalini.it/9781526426093 Heikkinen, H. L. (2020). Understanding mentoring within an ecosystem of practices. New teachers in Nordic countries: ecologies of mentoring and induction. Kelchtermans, G. (2017). ‘Should I stay or should I go?’: unpacking teacher attrition/retention as an educational issue. Teachers and Teaching, 23(8), 961-977. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2017.1379793 Kemmis, S., & Grootenboer, P. (2008). Situation praxis in practic. In S. Kemmis & T. J. Smith (Eds.), Enabling praxis: Challenges for education (pedagory, education and praxis) (pp. 37‐62). Sense Publishers. Schaefer, L., Long, J. S., & Clandinin, D. J. (2012). Questioning the research on early career teacher attrition and retention. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 58(1), 106- 121. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.11575/ajer.v58i1.55559 Toom, A., Kynäslahti, H., Krokfors, L., Jyrhämä, R., Byman, R., Stenberg, K., Maaranen, K., & Kansanen, P. (2010). Experiences of a Research‐based Approach to Teacher Education: suggestions for future policies. European Journal of Education, 45(2), 331-344. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-3435.2010.01432.x

It is well known that communication with young children improve their reading and writing skills later in life. Reading books to children is an established routine in early childhood education. Other routines are using the circle time for communication about daily activities. In Sweden language support is highly emphasized very much due to different international testing results, such as PISA, PEARLS and others. A quick glance at the website by the Swedish National School Research Institute shows that all systematic research overviews are often directed towards students learning, e.g. focused on student’s learning to read in early years or on how to support children with another mother tongue e.g. language development and social inclusion (Skolforskningsinstitutet, n.y). In other words, very much is said on what to do, but seldom how to do it. This paper focuses on how through professional learning meetings, as part of a model of action research, early childhood teachers developed deeper understandings about their communication support with children in every-day ‘classroom’ situations. The theory of practice architectures (TPA) is used as a theoretical resource to understand the nature and conditions of promise and possibility that action research provides for learners and leaders of professional learning (Kemmis et al., 2014; Rönnerman et al., 2015).

Networks hold a meeting during ECER. All interested are welcome.

We not only live in an age of uncertainty, but in obviously dangerous times. It is nearly a hundred years since Antonio Gramsci wrote ‘the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear’ (Gramsci, 1971, p. 276), but these words seem as relevant as ever. It is not a time of crisis, but an age of many crises that often combine and collide in ways that amplify their impact.

Educators are at the sharp end of these developments: having to keep abreast of rapid change, manage increasingly complex environments and preparing learners with both the skills and dispositions that will help them navigate these turbulent times.

Supporting educators in this work is the task of professional learning and development (PLD), but as the task of the educator becomes more complex, so too must the purposes and forms of PLD adapt. Historically much professional learning has been focused on developing the technical skills required to ‘perform’ the task of teaching, and much PLD research has been concerned with establishing ‘what works’ - where and in what circumstances.

If such an approach was ever appropriate, it is clear that it is not appropriate now. Old models and traditional practices appear unable to cope with the world as it is and much professional learning, and professional learning research, appears no longer fit for purpose in an age of crises (Stevenson, 2023).

This symposium seeks to explore these issues, with a particular focus on the implications for professional learning research and those engaged in such research. The intention is to ‘look forward’, to reflect on the professional learning of the future and the research that will be required to support it.

The approach adopted is to examine critically three recent Special Issues of Professional Development in Education (PDiE). PDiE is now in its 50^th year, and for all that time it has provided a focus for research in this important sub-field within the wider Education discipline. As with other scholarly journals, PDiE publishes Special Issues and these publications can be significant for what they say about a field and its future trajectory. Special issues are intended to bring together a range of contributors with a specialised focus to construct new knowledge and deepen collective understanding. As such they perform an important ‘agenda setting’ role by identifying new issues and charting new directions.

This symposium will focus on three special issues Leading Professional Learning to Navigate Complexity (vol 49:6), Beyond Reproduction: the Transformative Potential of Professional Learning (vol 49:4) and The Place of Professional Growth and Professional Learning in Leading Socially Just Schools (vol 47:1).

Each individual contribution will be presented by a PDiE editorial board member closely involved with the curating of the relevant SI, and presentations will be framed around a set of common questions:

1. What are the key issues that emerged from the contributions to the SI? Where were the similarities and differences?
2. What questions were addressed by contributors? Are there questions that were not raised, but which need to be addressed?
3. What are the implications for future research in PLD – theoretically, methodologically and empirically?

The intention is to use the Special Issues to raise critical questions about current and future trends in professional learning research. The session will be constructed to maximise discussion. Presenters are located in Ireland, the USA and England. The discussant is from Scotland. Articles in the SIs are drawn from a wide range of European and non-European contexts.

The special issue of Professional Development in Education, guest edited by Deirdre Torrance and Christine Forde (2021) with a Foreword by Associate Editor PDiE Fiona King (2021) sought to explore the perspectives and practices of leaders who advocate for social justice. Against the backdrop of the global Covid-19 pandemic, the expansion of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and the OECD's emphasis on Excellence and Equity, this special issue highlights the notable disparity between privileged and underprivileged communities. It underscores the urgent need to address issues of inequity. School leaders' professional learning and development (PLD) and how they support the PLD of others to build socially just schools was an important question underpinning this special issue. Torrance and Forde classified the submissions in this special issue into three overarching themes: Leadership development and leading socially just schools; Leading in socially just schools and; teacher development to build practice in socially just schools. The content primarily comprises empirical studies conducted in diverse contexts, complemented by a critical review of the literature and two conceptual papers. This presentation will explore the conceptualization of social justice in the featured articles. A prominent theme throughout the special issue revolves around the interchangeable use of terms (inclusion, equity, equality, diversity) in research, writing, and the practice of social justice. While acknowledging the absence of a universally agreed-upon definition for these terms, there is a concern about ensuring clarity in meanings to enhance understanding of the associated challenges. Whilst recognizing the significance of context in shaping these concepts and practices, this paper will make the case for explicitly defining what we mean by social justice within our professional learning environments. It will also contend that critically reflecting on the various factors that shape our beliefs and practices as educators—such as social, economic, political, and personal influences—is equally crucial. Professional learning that fosters such awareness represents only an initial phase, with calls for leaders and teachers to become more political and agentic in their roles. Social justice leadership calls for a reflective, activist and transformative stance, proposing that leadership learning should be integrated into all professional development. Additionally, we are compelled to unite in addressing the voices of those marginalised, aiming to enact positive changes and transform both schools and society.

Christine Forde & Deirdre Torrance (2021) The place of professional growth and professional learning in leading socially just schools, Professional Development in Education, 47:1, 3-6, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2020.1848491 Fiona King (2021) Foreword, Professional Development in Education, 47:1, 12, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2020.1848492

This special issue, published in December 2023 and edited by Phil Poekert and Fiona King (2023), emanates from a symposium sponsored by the journal and hosted at Dublin City University in June 2022, the latest in a series of biannual symposia. The issue comprises 17 papers and an afterword, and it showcases contributions from authors representing 12 countries across 4 continents, ranging from Italy and Qatar to China and New Zealand. These contributions include a conceptual meta-model developed by the editors (King et al, 2023), exploring the constructs of Context, Experience, and Outcomes (CEO) as a framework applicable at individual, school, and systems levels. The editors reflect that all research on professional learning and development, including contributions in the special issue, explores the interaction among contextual influences, experiences of teachers and leaders, and outcomes of professional learning on students, educators, schools, and systems. All papers in the special issue also acknowledge the increasing complexities within the implementation of professional learning. Drawing inspiration from Bogotch's (2021) call for shared awareness and actionable plans to achieve socially just schools in another special issue, the issue aims to advance the field from acknowledging complexity to offering actionable guidance on operationalizing complexity in both research and practice. Collectively, the papers make four key points about the nature of leadership for professional learning. Firstly, they emphasize leadership as a shared practice, transcending traditional roles and positions. Secondly, the leadership of professional learning goes beyond mere management. Thirdly, a deep understanding of complex networks of influence is crucial for effective translation of professional learning into teaching experiences. Finally, they research approaches aiming to optimize the impact of professional learning on student outcomes while ensuring equity in education. A selection of papers in the special issue focus on conceptual and practical tools for navigating complexity. Examples include a conceptual framework for understanding the role of agency in professional learning, insights into how accomplished teachers navigate challenges, and the importance of fostering a culture that values enquiry as a way of facilitating meaningful professional learning. The remaining papers showcase examples and illustrations of navigating complexity in professional learning practice and research. From headteachers navigating the pandemic to collaborative inquiry models supporting teacher professional learning, these real-world cases offer insights into advancing professional learning approaches and addressing complex challenges in education. Together, these papers contribute to ongoing dialogue on navigating uncertainty in education, fostering hope for the future.

Ira Bogotch (2021) Afterword: inserting social justice into professional development, Professional Development in Education, 47:1, 191-196, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2020.1848490 Philip Poekert & Fiona King (2023) Leading professional learning to navigate complexity, Professional Development in Education, 49:6, 953-957, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2023.2277572 Fiona King, Philip Poekert & Takeshia Pierre (2023) A pragmatic meta-model to navigate complexity in teachers’ professional Learning, Professional Development in Education, 49:6, 958-977, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2023.2248478

This special issue of Professional Development in Education, edited by Aileen Kennedy and Howard Stevenson (2023) explicitly sought to encourage a critique of much mainstream professional learning and development (PLD), while also offering a more optimistic vision of what genuinely transformative professional learning can, and should, look like. Several contributions explored the limitations of much current professional learning provision, but the main focus was on the development of the notion of ‘transformation’ at a theoretical level. An interesting feature of the SI is the broad range of conceptual frameworks that contributors drew on, often working with more than one approach and seeking interesting ways to meld different frameworks. Many of the contributors utilised Jack Mezirow’s work (1997), but a range of approaches rooted in critical pedagogy and radical adult education were also evident. The work often highlighted the importance, but also the limitations, of these valuable intellectual traditions. This presentation will offer an overview of how ‘transformation’ is conceived across all the articles in the Special Issue. While conceptual pluralism can be a value, it can also reflect an element of incoherence when considering what is being ‘transformed’, how and by whom. Such uncertainty can then contribute to the term being denuded of any real meaning, as happens frequently in those contexts where ‘transformation’ appears to denote little more than ‘substantial change’. This paper will make the case for a deeper theorising of the notion of transformative learning in a PLD context. It is an approach that sees personal transformation as nested within a wider collective transformation and, in turn, offering the prospect of a transformation of social relations (Stevenson 2024). Such an approach is necessary if those who position themselves as engaged in ‘critical professional learning’ (Parkhouse et al, 2023) are able to navigate the unavoidable tensions and contradictions that flow from working simultaneously ‘in and against’ work contexts that are exploitative and unjust (Mayo, 2005). This is a form of professional learning that goes beyond learning for work, or even learning about work, but takes seriously the notion of learning against work.

Aileen Kennedy & Howard Stevenson (2023) Beyond reproduction: the transformative potential of professional learning, Professional Development in Education, 49:4, 581-585, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2023.2226971 Peter Mayo (2005) ‘In and against’ the state: Gramsci, war of position and adult education. www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/bitstream/123456789/1463/1/War_of_Position-Mayo-libre-1.pdf Jack Mezirow (1997). Transformative learning: Theory to practice. New directions for adult and continuing education, 1997(74), 5-12. Hillary Parkhouse, Jesse Senechal & Elizabeth Severson-Irby (2023) Laying a foundation for critical professional development through a research–practice partnership, Professional Development in Education, 49:4, 725-738, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2023.2193198 Howard Stevenson (2024) Educational Leadership and Antonio Gramsci: The Organising of Ideas, Routledge.

Tackling uncertainty with genuine hope for the future relies, in part, on quality education. Indeed, hope and education are inextricably linked, with both rooted in ideas of the future, of formation, of becoming. However, delivering on education’s potential requires more than stating goals or hoping for a better future. Beyond rhetoric, we need to find paths of action teachers and leaders in education can take that make a positive difference and create genuine hope (Gore, 2022).

Efforts to develop, test and scale meaningful approaches to educational improvement are all the more urgent in the context of the PISA 2022 results (OECD, 2023) which showed an overall downward trend in student achievement and highlighted enduring gross inequities – students from disadvantaged backgrounds fared worse than their advantaged counterparts across all countries and economies represented. A nation’s overall prosperity and collective welfare is critically reliant on the quality of the schooling it offers, yet most education systems struggle to significantly and measurably increase quality. This situation is highlighted in the United Nations’ declaration that the world is falling drastically behind in achieving SDG4 Quality Education and the estimate that by 2030, 300 million students will lack basic literacy and numeracy skills worldwide (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, n.d.).

In attempts to improve the quality of education globally, billions of dollars are spent each year on teacher professional development (PD). These learning opportunities for teachers promise much, but often fail to deliver lasting change. Arguably, sustainable, genuine improvement to education requires robust evidence and the alignment of research, policy, and practice. Borko (2004) describes three phases of PD research: 1) research of a single PD program offered at one site; 2) scaling up a single PD program and examining how it plays out in different contexts; and 3) comparisons of different PD programs. Most research on teacher PD falls into the first category, although there are signs of more phase 2 studies (Sztajn et al., 2017). Still, relatively little is known about how contextual factors influence the scaling up of PD, particularly when examining the same PD program in different countries. There are of course exceptions (see for example Maas & Engeln, 2018).

In this symposium, we explore the challenge of scaling teacher PD in three different countries – Albania, Australia, and Sweden – all of which engaged with the PD program known as Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR). Developed in Australia, with compelling evidence of statistically significant positive effects on mathematics and reading outcomes, including slightly stronger effects for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, (Gore et al., 2021, 2023), we consider the viability of scaling QTR as a way to address pressing global issues of quality education (Ritchie et al., 2023). The papers explore the application of QTR across these diverse national contexts as a specific case of scaling PD. In so doing, we demonstrate how genuine hope for positive educational change in uncertain times might be generated.

Despite massive global investment in professional development (PD), goals to improve student outcomes, including greater equity, are often unmet. In this paper, we report on a program of research, conducted over the past 20 years, which shows positive effects for both teachers and students of Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR) PD. The research, which includes randomised controlled trials, replication studies, and independent evaluation and traverses conceptual, qualitative, and quantitative analyses, highlights three components of the PD that were critical to establishing its potential for scaling in other nations. First, QTR puts pedagogy at the centre of PD. We argue that pedagogy has been widely misunderstood and overlooked in school improvement efforts. By centring pedagogy, we question the emerging consensus on “effective PD” as needing to be content-focused and argue for additional theoretical and empirical work on what is effective (Gore et al., 2023). The focus on pedagogy means QTR applies to teachers across grades, subjects, and at all career stages (Gore & Rosser, 2020) which contributes to the scalability of the approach, including in the resource-constrained environments facing many nations. Second, QTR attends carefully to the power dynamics – based on experience, seniority, and positional authority – which often get in the way of critical analytical work among teachers (Bowe & Gore, 2017). Underpinned by a Foucauldian understanding of power as productive and circulating (Foucault, 1988), QTR deliberately flattens school power hierarchies, creating multiple opportunities for all teachers to be heard and building trusting professional relationships. These processes empower teachers to drive the PD with minimal external input – a feature which adds to its scalability, sustainability, and impact. Third, QTR is backed by rigorous research, including four separate RCTs that collectively demonstrate (statistically significant) positive effects of the approach on the quality of teaching, teacher morale, teacher efficacy and student achievement/ attainment (Gore et al., 2017, 2021). At a time when schools and teachers are under enormous pressure, exacerbated by the pandemic and dire teacher shortages (Fray et al., 2023), we argue that investment in PD with demonstrated impact is critical and urgent. Efforts to scale QTR PD, especially across international borders as reported in the remaining papers, would not have happened without such strong evidence.

Bowe, J. M., & Gore, J. M. (2017). Reassembling teacher professional development: The case for Quality Teaching Rounds. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 23, 352–366. Foucault, M. (1988). Power/Knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972–1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Knopf US. Fray, L., Jaremus, F., Gore, J., Miller, A., & Harris, J. (2023). Under pressure and overlooked: The impact of COVID-19 on teachers in NSW public schools. The Australian Educational Researcher, 50, 701 – 727. Gore, J., Lloyd, A., Smith, M., Bowe, J., Ellis, H., & Lubans, D. (2017). Effects of Professional Development on the quality of teaching: Results from an RCT of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 68, 99–113. Gore, J., Miller, A., Fray, L., Harris, J., & Prieto-Rodriguez, E. (2021). Improving student achievement through Professional Development: Results from an RCT of Quality Teaching Rounds. Teaching and Teacher Education, 101, Article 103297. Gore, J., Patfield, S., & Fray, L. (2023). Questioning the consensus on effective Professional Development. In R. J. Tierney, F. Rizvi, & K. Erkican. (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (Volume 5). Elsevier (pp.511–517). Gore, J., & Rosser, B. (2020). Beyond content-focused PD: Powerful professional learning across grades and subjects. PD in Education, 48(2), 218–232.

In December 1990, the Albanian government was thrust into the democratic world as a result of the fall of communism. Since then, Albanian education continues to be subjected to global pressures in an attempt to ‘catch-up’ with the west (Gardinier, et al., 2010; Sota, 2014). However, efforts to improve the education system and in particular teaching practice, largely through policy initiatives, have produced minimal change in the classroom (Council of Ministers, 2016). Today, students are faced with predominantly direct textbook-led instruction and basic knowledge recall, with little deep understanding or application, resulting in poor outcomes (UNESCO, 2017). PISA 2022 scores demonstrate a downturn on previous scores (OECD, 2023). Even when accounting for various factors that potentially contributed to this slide, previous results have been consistently lower than the OECD mean. In one attempt to achieve the goal of improved educational provision and outcomes, Albania has addressed aspects of initial teacher education. However, research indicates the most recent graduates are unable to move far from the confines of the traditional teacher-led practices they experienced during their teacher training (Zaçellari, 2019). Therefore, improving the quality of initial teacher education remains a key national priority (Maghnouj, et al., 2020). Addressing this key priority from a transactional-realist perspective, I explored the potential impact and value of the QT Model, at the core of QTR PD, for Albanian teacher training. Participants were drawn from three levels of initial teacher education, Master of Teaching students, teacher-interns, and teacher educators. Through workshops, the QT Model, a highly refined and widely tested conceptualisation of what constitutes quality teaching, was introduced to participants as a tool for developing their capacity to continually improve the quality of their practice. These QT workshops enabled practical engagement with the Model and the process of lesson ‘coding,’ while real-world insight into its value was gleaned from those on internship who were able to experiment with the Model and coding process in their classrooms. Does QT offer cause for hope? It appears so. Initial results from pre and post intervention observations and interviews demonstrate a positive response to the Model and coding, providing clear potential for direct impact on classroom practice. This paper represents the first intervention-based study to provide practical support for Albanian pre-service teachers to recognise and develop high-quality teaching practice. The study has important implications for the wider application of the QT Model in future Albanian teacher education, and beyond.

Council of Ministers. (2016). National strategy for development and integration 2015-2020. Republic of Albania Council of Ministers. https://ips.gov.al/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/NSDI-eng.pdf Gardinier, M. P., & Anderson Worden, E. (2010). The semblance of progress amidst the absence of change: Educating for an imagined Europe in Moldova and Albania. In I. Silova (Ed.), International Perspectives on Education and Society (pp. 183–211). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3679(2010)0000014010 Maghnouj, S., Fordham, E., Guthrie, C., Henderson, K., & Trujillo, D. (2020). OECD reviews of evaluation and assessment in education: Albania. OECD. https://doi.org/10.1787/d267dc93-en OECD. (2023). PISA 2022 Results: Factsheets—Albania. OECD. https://www.oecd.org/publication/pisa-2022-results/country-notes/ Sota, J. (2014). Educational phenomena in Albania in the years of communist dictatorship and the reformation efforts after [the] nineties. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(0). https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2011.v11n0p%p UNESCO. (2017). Albania: Education policy review; issues and recommendations, extended report (p. 220). http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0025/002592/259245e.pdf Zaçellari, M. (2019). Teaching practice in the Albanian context: Student-teachers’ perceptions regarding their experience in teaching. In M. Kowalczuk-Walêdziak, A. Korzeniecka-Bondar, W. Danilewicz, & G. Lauwers (Eds.), Rethinking teacher education for the 21st century (1st ed., pp. 168–183). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpb3xhh.15

It is becoming widely accepted that teachers’ professional development (PD) is key when it comes to the development of instructional quality and student achievement. At the same time, results show slightly negative effects of the PD that teachers usually participate in (Kirsten et al., 2023). Considering the need to support teacher professionalization, frameworks of critical features of effective PD have been proposed, for example that the PD should include multiple sessions spread over a longer period of time (duration) during which teachers, together with their colleagues (collective participation), actively engage in activities such as planning and revising their instructional practices (active learning, e.g., Desimone, 2009). However, even PD programs designed according to these frameworks have difficulty demonstrating positive effects, especially if implemented on a larger scale (e.g., Jacob et al., 2017). The above issue is also evident in Sweden, where several national scale PD programs, corresponding to the core critical features frameworks, have been implemented during the past decade with effects that can be questioned (e.g., Lindvall et al., 2022). In particular, the collegial meetings in these programs seem to hold little potential for learning. The discussions during teacher meetings tend to focus on student characteristics and lesson design (e.g., group work or individual work) instead of critical discussions regarding instructional practices and teachers’ classroom actions (e.g., Kaufmann & Ryve, 2022). In order to support teachers to engage in constructive discussions about instructional practices with the aim of developing instructional quality, we have recently engaged in a combined research and developmental project, where we collaborate with four schools to try out and adapt QTR to a Swedish context. Based on data from surveys, interviews, and videotaped lessons pre and post teachers’ PD participation, we present results regarding how QTR has affected teachers' instructional practices and collegial collaboration, as well as how these effects are mediated by teachers' visions of instructional quality. The concept of instructional vision is of particular interest, given recent studies have shown that even though aspects such as teachers' education and subject knowledge can be important for the changes that are implemented in teaching, it is visions of high quality instruction that are of greatest importance (Munter & Wilhelm, 2020). Also, implicit national instructional visions in Sweden (in particular regarding the role of the teacher) can affect PD implementation (Kaufmann & Ryve, 2022; Ryve & Hemmi, 2019).

Desimone, L. M. (2009). Improving impact studies of teachers’ professional development: Toward better conceptualizations and measures. Educational Researcher, 38(3), 181–199 Kaufmann, O. T., & Ryve, A. (2022). Teachers’ framing of students’ difficulties in mathematics learning in collegial discussions. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 1-17. Kirsten, N., Lindvall, J., Ryve, A., & Gustafsson, J. E. (2023). How effective is the professional development in which teachers typically participate? Quasi-experimental analyses of effects on student achievement based on TIMSS 2003–2019. Teaching and Teacher Education, 132, 1-10. Jacob, R., Hill, H., & Corey, D. (2017). The impact of a professional development program on teachers' mathematical knowledge for teaching, instruction, and student achievement. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 10(2), 379-407. Lindvall, J., Helenius, O., Eriksson, K., & Ryve, A. (2022). Impact and design of a national-scale professional development program for mathematics teachers. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(5), 744-759. Munter, C., & Wilhelm, A.G. (2021). Mathematics teachers’ knowledge, networks, practice, and change in instructional visions. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(3), 342-354. Ryve, A., & Hemmi, K. (2019). Educational policy to improve mathematics instruction at scale: Conceptualizing contextual factors. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 102(3), 379-394

Teacher professional learning and development (PLD) happens inside a wide and evolving environment. From the perspective of teacher lifelong learning, this stage follows initial education and induction, and should be a constant factor in the development of professionality (Hoyle, 1974) during the whole career of teachers. Since the emergence of new phenomena and issues in school systems is steadily increasing, PLD’s importance has grown during recent years. From a systemic standpoint, the aspects interacting in the process leading to teacher PLD can take place at three main levels: macro/whole school system; meso/individual school and micro/classroom (Ostinelli, 2023). During these last years a number of symposia at the EERA-ECER conferences contributed to the publishing of a volume on teacher PLD in Europe (Innovation in Teacher Professional Learning in Europe, 2023). The focus was on the different approaches to teacher professional learning in Europe, considered from the whole system perspective. Actually, the book provided the reader with an extended view of this issue. However, due to the complexity of school systems, it is important to extend the analysis to other systemic levels. Following a path ideally leading from macro to micro (that is, from whole system to classroom level), it is important to increase the knowledge of what practiced at the meso level, investigating innovative practices and projects involving individual schools. The idea is therefore to illustrate a number of different approaches to teacher PLD in the field, focusing the attention on innovative experiences involving individual schools. The presentations included in the symposium deal with different themes. The first one, in times where digitalization and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are affecting heavily school systems and at large the global educational domain, is about the development - starting from actual teacher skills - of new competencies, in the context of innovative and more dynamic relationships between these technologies and pedagogy. For instance, the ethical aspects in using these information-based approaches are paramount (Unesco, 2023). A second theme is the match between continuous teacher education and teachers’ and principals’ needs (Ryan and Deci, 2020; Zhang, Admiraal and Saab, 2021). In fact, teachers have various needs concerning situations and processes happening in the classroom, and their fulfilment is important in building a motivation for change, relative to teaching and class management innovation. A third issue is about how to develop teacher agency in Professional learning communities, holding into account that the context where they act is more complex than what hypothesized by various models. In fact, very often rational, linear cause-effects interventions fail to achieve the desired results because of their limited perspective. Finally, yet importantly, sustainability is, like in other domains, a key factor also in teacher PLD. Interactions between schools, children, families to create sustainable improvement from specific professional learning and development using a facilitated action research framework are an important object of study in the context of the development of teacher professional expertise.

In the study an implementation of a collaboratively constructed city level digi-strategy is analysed. The implementation of the strategy through co-designing the use of digi-tools in teaching and learning was considered as teachers’ professional learning. Consequently, the study covers three levels: city, school and individual teacher. The strategy was decided to be implemented through school level development projects and these projects were supported by researchers at the University of Helsinki. Each school decided their own project and they typically focused to the use of digital tools in teaching and learning, design of school learning environments and inclusive education. The participation of students to the implementation of the strategy contextualizes teachers’ professional learning and help teachers to focus to students and the development of their digital competence (Fernández-Batanero et al. 2020). The co-development project connects teachers’ individual learning to the teachers' common practices, practices in the classroom and teacher community (Maier and Schmidt 2015). The implementation and teachers’ professional learning was analysed based on a questionnaire and interview data collected from teachers, participating to different development projects. According to data, the use of basic digi-tools increased as well as teachers’ competences to use digi-tools, especially in blended learning. Collaborative nature of the projects and contextual learning in real classroom and teacher community situations supported teachers’ professional learning. Challenges were related to the leadership of the project.

Fernández-Batanero, J. M., et al., 2020. Digital competences for teacher professional development. Systematic review. European Journal of Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2020.1827389 Maier, R. and Schmidt, A., 2015. Explaining organizational knowledge creation with a knowledge maturing model. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 13(4), 361–381. https://doi.org/10.1057/kmrp.2013.56

In the context of teacher PLD, in Denmark for approximately ten years there has been a focus on professional learning development concerning competences in managing teacher collaboration within PLC, Professional Learning Communities. In agreement with widespread leadership theories (e.g. Yukl & Gardner III, 2020), the implicit assumption has been that teachers work with a high level of rationality: What is the intended learning outcome? What teaching methods should be chosen in order to reach the goals? (e.g. Dufour & Marzano, 2011). However, recent studies have shown that often teachers don't work according to a rational ends-means scheme (Thorborg, 2024). Rather, they work under the conditions of bounded rationality (Qvortrup, 2003. Simon, 1997 [1945]. Simon, 2019 [1996]). In many cases, teachers have to manage situations in which the complexity of the situation (teaching students in a classroom) is bigger than the capacity of the teacher (e.g. Lortie, 2002). This realization is based partly on theories of complexity and professional judgement, partly on interviews with and observations of teachers (Thorborg, 2024. Qvortrup, forthcoming). The implication is that teacher collaboration and professional learning must support much more explorative practices based on a strong professional sense-making culture rather than on rational ends-means practices (e.g. Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018). This challenges the conception of teachers’ professional judgment practice (Qvortrup, 2017). The implications for teacher professional learning and development (PLD) in schools will be elaborated.

Dufour, R. & Marzano, R. J. (2011): Leaders of Learning. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. Hargreaves, A. & O’Connor, M. T. (2018): Collaborative Professionalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Lortie, D. C. (2002): Schoolteacher. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Qvortrup, L. (2003): The Hypercomplex Society. New York: Peter Lang. Qvortrup, L. (2017): Undervisning er udøvelse af dømmekraft [Teaching is the exercise of judgment]. In: Holm, C. & Thingholm, H. B. (eds.): Evidens og dømmekraft [Evidence and judgment]. Frederikshavn: Dafolo. Qvortrup, L. (forthcoming): Professionel dømmekraft [Professional Judgment]. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. Simon, H. A. (1997 [1945]): Administrative Behavior. New York, NY: The Free Press. Simon, H. (2019 [1996]): The Sciences of the Artificial. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Thorborg, M. (2024): Et begivenhedsbaseret perspektiv på lærerkollegial aktivitet i den danske folkeskole [An event-based perspective on teacher collegial activity in the Danish primary school]. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press. Yukl, G. & Gardner III, W. L. (2020): Leadership in Organizations. Harlow: Pearson.

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In teacher education there is a well-established agreement on the beneficial effects of conducting positive psychology interventions (Allen et al., 2022) during the stages of initial education, induction and professional development. A prime example is the development in teachers of constructs such as hope (Snyder, 2000), optimism (Seligman, 1998), self-efficacy (Parker, 1998), and resilience (Wagnild & Young, 1993). These constructs, identified by Luthans (2007), constitute what is defined as “Psychological Capital” (PsyCap). They are by their definition measurable, open to development within a short timeframe and linked to well-being and work performance. Specific survey instruments have been developed over the years for each construct. In the case of teachers, working on personal potential has also proven to be linked to the quality of teaching and the ability to motivate pupils (Vink et al, 2011) for school activities and for orienting themselves towards study. Psychological capital-related training interventions implemented in initial and continuous teacher education in the canton of Ticino (Switzerland) are based on this principle. The courses proposed were developed taking into account institutional and individual needs. The learning of classroom teaching practices was combined with individual development paths. Each course lasted one school year. During this time span, each participant was supported in designing a self-development plan containing objectives, deadlines, activities to be undertaken and tools for evaluating the obtained results. Participants were able to measure their Psychological Capital at the beginning and end of the course and become aware of the changes that had taken place. The presentation will be focused on the description of coaching activities (both individual and collective), conducted with teachers and principals, and on the qualitative and quantitative results obtained using this kind of approach.

Allen, K. A., Furlong, M. J., Vella-Brodrick, D., & Suldo, S. M. (Eds.). (2022). Handbook of positive psychology in schools: Supporting process and practice. Routledge. Luthans, F., Avolio, B. J., Avey, J. B., & Norman, S. M. (2007). Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541-572. Parker, S. (1998). Enhancing role-breadth self efficacy: The roles of job enrichment and other organizational interventions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(6), 835-852. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.83.6.835 Seligman, M. E. P. (1998). Learned optimism. Pocket Books. Snyder, C. R. (2000). Handbook of Hope: Theory, Measures, and Applications. London: Academic Press. Vink, J., Ouweneel, E., & Le Blanc, P. (2011). Psychological resources for engaged employees: Psychological capital in the job demands-resources model. Gedrag & Organisatie, 24(2), 101–120. Wagnild, G. M., & Young, H. M. (1993). Development and psychometric evaluation of the resiliency scale. Journal of Nursing Management, 1, 165-178.

This symposium contributes to decades of international research designed to understand and improve leadership practices across educational sites. In times where uncertainty for educational development prevails, the work of a group of educators described as middle leaders, whose remit is largely to support professional learning, brings hope to teaching development. Scholarship shows that the study of educational leadership is predominantly focused on the work, characteristics, and practices of school principals (Gurr & Drysdale, 2013). Yet among the web of leadership practices (Nehez et al., 2022), the leading and development practices of middle leaders are less prominent as a dedicated focus of research (Forde et al., 2019). Across the globe, middle leaders are increasingly recruited to support site-based education development of teachers in primary and secondary schools, preschools, and universities (Grootenboer et al., 2020; Vangrieken et al., 2017). Site-based education development, a term coined by Kemmis et al. (2024), is a central notion for capturing the actual situatedness (needs and circumstances of practitioners) that influence the practices for leading professional learning. This symposium draws together research conducted in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden seeking to redress the more limited body of research focused on middle leadership, particularly as it relates to the productivity of communicative practices employed when middle leaders lead education development in their own settings.

Middle leaders are variously defined across different educational jurisdictions and international contexts (Lipscomb et al., 2023); for example, they are known as first teachers or development leaders in Sweden, or instructional leaders, instructional teachers or middle leaders in Australia and New Zealand. Among their designated roles, it is generally understood that a main responsibility is to facilitate professional development and curriculum change initiatives (Rönnerman et al., 2018). In this symposium, presenters consider middle leaders as those educators responsible for leading, teaching, communicating and collaborating with teams of colleagues as they manage and facilitate professional development among their colleagues (Grootenboer et al., 2020). As previous research has shown, as middle leaders lead the learning of others, the framing and focus of their roles and responsibilities shift responsively across their leading practices requiring different relational intensities as they work alongside teaching colleagues and senior leadership (Edwards-Groves et al., 2023). This heightens the research attention needed to illuminate the sociality, so communicative interactional imperatives, of middle leading practices.

Capitalising on the ‘practice turn’ in education (Kemmis et al., 2014), the papers in this symposium utilise practice theories to explore the nature and influence of middle leaders’ communicative practices as they engage in their leading work. Broad questions for the collection of papers consider the relationship between middle leading practices (what actually happens), the sociality (the intersubjective and interpersonal), the situatedness (the site-ontological responsiveness) and the enabling and constraining conditions (or practice architectures) which influence the day-to-day practices of middle leaders. Practice theories attend assiduously to the site in both existential and ontological terms as being sited (in actual places where things happen), not just as a location in an abstract and universal matrix of space-time (Kemmis et al., 2014, pp. 214-215). In this light, the papers aim to show how middle leaders leading the practice development of their colleagues recognise and respond to the local contingencies ‘at work’ in the site. This reciprocally requires a theory of practice that treats middle leading practices as situated, socially, dialogically, ontologically and temporally constituted. This view of practices is important for considering, as the papers in this symposium do, ways the communication practices enacted by middle leaders are comprised of practices that promote and embody dialogue, relationality and responsivity.

Teachers' professional learning is connected to and dependent on different leading practices. In a previous study, we explored such practices and identified how principals’ leading, teacher leaders’ leading and external development leaders’ leading formed a web of leading (Nehez et al. 2022). In this presentation, we take the perspective of a development leader as a middle leader and explore the interplay between development leaders and teacher leaders in a professional development program, where the leading and learning practices of development leaders and teacher leaders meet. The current study is informed by the theory of practice architectures (TPA) (Kemmis et al. 2014, Mahon et al. 2017) and the theory of ecologies of practices (Kemmis et al. 2014). In line with TPA we regard development leaders’ leading as a site and time specific social practice composed of sayings, doings and relatings hanging together in a distinctive project, which in this study is defined as leading professional learning. The study is conducted in a Swedish school organization where professional learning for teachers is conducted in cooperation between development leaders at an over-arching organizational level, principals, and teacher leaders. The data is collected from a professional development program where 33 teacher leaders participated. It includes the planning of and reflections on the program. The analysis consists of: 1) identification and categorization of the development leaders’ sayings, doings and relatings when leading the program, 2) documentation of the interplay in narratives, and 3) thematic analysis of the narratives to understand what characterized the development leaders’ leading for professional learning. The findings show how the development leaders’ leading practice hangs together with the teacher leaders’ learning and leading practices through four types of responsiveness: 1) responsiveness to ideas of successful leading, 2) responsiveness to experiences and observations of leading practices, 3) responsiveness to teacher leaders’ understanding and 4) responsiveness to own leading practices. Through these, a formative aspect of leading unfolds, where the connection between leading and learning appears. Due to the findings, the web of leading (Nehez et al. 2022) can be further developed. The dimension of learning comes forward as an essential part of the web. To be able to lead responsively, specific arrangements need to be in place. With such arrangements it becomes possible to act responsively and relate to information that is relevant for leading professional learning. Such arrangements form learning leading in the web of leading for professional learning.

Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer. Mahon, K., Kemmis, S., Francisco, S., & Lloyd, A. (2017). Introduction: Practice theory and the theory of practice architectures. In: K. Mahon, S. Francisco, and S. Kemmis, eds. Exploring education and professional practice: Through the lens of practice architectures, (pp.1-30). Springer. Nehez, J., Sülau, V., and Olin, A., 2022. A web of leading for professional learning: Leadership from a decentring perspective, Journal of educational administration and history, 55 (1), 23-38.

This paper presents an examination of ways middle leader’s dialogicality and interaction practices create communicative openings for professional practice development among teachers across school and tertiary contexts. The paper addresses issues concerning how middle leaders support the design and implementation of professional learning that is worthwhile and responsive to the needs and circumstances of site-based development. It pays attention to the ways in which apposite communication approaches to practice development are derived from what we describe as dialogic principles for teacher learning that can be employed to guide the discourses and discursivity that enable development and change (Grootenboer et al., 2020; Edwards-Groves et al., 2023). It addresses the multidimensionality of relational trust as critical in creating democratic communicative spaces for professional dialogue, learning and practice development (Edwards-Groves & Grootenboer, 2021). The theory of practice architectures guides the thematic analysis revealing the unique cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that influence the possibilities for creating open communicative spaces where teachers are supported by middle leaders to address issues of change (Grootenboer & Edwards-Groves, 2024; Kemmis et al., 2014). As a theory concerned with the site-based 'happeningness' of practices, it offers a lens to delineate the distinctive ways the dialogic practices of middle leaders create conditions that enable teachers to actively participate in their professional learning conversations. This provides opportunities for engaging deeply with the thinking of others, recognising and expanding their own and others’ insights, and by challenging the ideologies, theories and practical propositions they are encountering. Drawing on empirical cases, the paper will outline ways dialogic approaches to professional learning form a critical pivot point from which middle leading practices support teachers to successfully engage in site-based change (Rönnerman et al., 2018). An empirically-derived, theoretically informed dialogic framework useful for facilitating robust and productive collegial conversations will be introduced. As a fundamental position, dialogue is taken not to be the kind of facilitator talk that simply delivers, lectures or feeds information, but it is a planned-for approach to professional learning that deliberately opens up communicative spaces in democratic ways responsive to individual circumstances and needs, thus maximising teacher engagement in individual and collective learning experiences. Specifically, the presentation demonstrates the value of a dialogic approach to designing and negotiating site-based professional learning, where as a premise, it is considered that it is the dialogues that take place among educators that display the critical position ‘the site’ has for facilitating practice development.

Edwards-Groves, C., & Grootenboer, P. (2021). Conceptualising the five dimensions of relational trust: middle leadership in schools. School Leadership and Management, 41(6),1-24. Edwards-Groves, C., Grootenboer, P. Attard, C., & Tindall-Ford, S. (2023). Middle leading practices of facilitation, mentoring and coaching for teacher development: A focus on intent and relationality. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 19(1), 1-20. Grootenboer, P. & Edwards-Groves, C. (2024). The theory of practice architectures: Researching Practices. Springer. Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C. & Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle, Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526. Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C. & Rönnerman, K. (2020). Middle Leadership in Schools: A practical guide for leading learning. Routledge. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer. Rönnerman, K., Edwards-Groves, C., & Grootenboer, P. (2018). Att leda från mitten - lärare driver professionell utveckling [trans: Leading from the middle - Teachers driving professional development]. Lärarförlaget. ISBN 978-91-88149-33-6

There is a widespread understanding that schools play a pivotal role in protecting and preserving biological, social, and material resources. However, this requires a certain kind of education practices that support shared responsibility, promote competences in collaboration and facilitate critical and creative thinking. Such practices, denoted in both policy and research as education for sustainable development (ESD), is a response to the need to educate students to cope with the complex challenges associated with sustainable development and future societies. This paper presents a sub-study as part of a larger project (Forssten Seiser et al., 2023) that took place in a municipality in Sweden. ESD was introduced in 2016, and the school administration supported and managed the work for three years. In the sub-study, the function and conditions of ESD facilitators were explored. ESD facilitators are teachers with a function to lead improvement processes towards ESD. As middle leaders, the ESD facilitators’ responsibility was to facilitate dialogue and communication among teaching staff. The ESD process was directed towards a whole school approach, meaning that ESD is fully integrated in the local curriculum and functions as a pedagogical idea (Mogren & Gericke, 2019). In a middle leading position, the ESD facilitators worked from a position between the school leaders and the teaching staff, focusing on both students’ learning and on leading and organizing colleagues’ professional learning (Edwards-Groves & Rönnerman, 2013; Grootenboer et al., 2015). In semi-structured interviews seven ESD facilitators describe their goals, relationships and the practice architectures which enabled and constrained their function as middle leaders. Their reported experiences were analysed in relation to a typology of sustainability change agents (Van Poeck et al., 2017) in which their roles can be positioned along the axes of open-ended vs. instrumental approaches to change and learning, and personal involvement vs. personal detachment. Results show how the ESD facilitator function were more open-ended in schools where there was room for dialogue, reflexive discussions, and collaboration. In schools where there was little space for these activities, the facilitator function became more instrumental. The results show how a lack of dialogue and collaboration created challenges to integrating ESD as a holistic pedagogical idea. An individualistic school culture emerged as a plausible explanation for teachers’ resistance to other teachers acting as ESD facilitators and, that contextual factors relating to the organization and culture have significant influence on middle leaders and their ability to fulfil their assignments.

Edwards Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2013). Generating leading practices through professional learning. Professional development in education, 39(1), 122-140. Forssten Seiser, A., Mogren, A., Gericke, N., Berglund, T., & Olsson, D. (2023). Developing school leading guidelines facilitating a whole school approach to education for sustainable development. Environmental Education Research, 29(5), 783-805. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2022.215198 Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C., & Rönnerman, K. (2015). Leading practice development: voices from the middle, Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526, DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2014.924985 Mogren, A., & Gericke, N. (2019). School leaders’ experiences of implementing education for sustainable development: Anchoring the transformative perspective. Sustainability, 11(12), 3343. Van Poeck, K., Læssøe, J., & Block, T. (2017). An exploration of sustainability change agents as facilitators of nonformal learning: Mapping a moving and intertwined landscape. Ecology and Society, 22(2).

This symposium contributes to decades of international research designed to understand and improve leadership practices across educational sites. In times where uncertainty for educational development prevails, the work of a group of educators described as middle leaders, whose remit is largely to support professional learning, brings hope to teaching development. Scholarship shows that the study of educational leadership is predominantly focused on the work, characteristics, and practices of school principals (Gurr & Drysdale, 2013). Yet among the web of leadership practices (Nehez et al., 2022), the leading and development practices of middle leaders are less prominent as a dedicated focus of research (Forde et al., 2019). Across the globe, middle leaders are increasingly recruited to support site-based education development of teachers in primary and secondary schools, preschools, and universities (Grootenboer et al., 2020; Vangrieken et al., 2017). Site-based education development, a term coined by Kemmis et al. (2024), is a central notion for capturing the actual situatedness (needs and circumstances of practitioners) that influence the practices for leading professional learning. This symposium draws together research conducted in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden seeking to redress the more limited body of research focused on middle leadership, particularly as it relates to the productivity of communicative practices employed when middle leaders lead education development in their own settings.

Middle leaders are variously defined across different educational jurisdictions and international contexts (Lipscomb et al., 2023); for example, they are known as first teachers or development leaders in Sweden, or instructional leaders, instructional teachers or middle leaders in Australia and New Zealand. Among their designated roles, it is generally understood that a main responsibility is to facilitate professional development and curriculum change initiatives (Rönnerman et al., 2018). In this symposium, presenters consider middle leaders as those educators responsible for leading, teaching, communicating and collaborating with teams of colleagues as they manage and facilitate professional development among their colleagues (Grootenboer et al., 2020). As previous research has shown, as middle leaders lead the learning of others, the framing and focus of their roles and responsibilities shift responsively across their leading practices requiring different relational intensities as they work alongside teaching colleagues and senior leadership (Edwards-Groves et al., 2023). This heightens the research attention needed to illuminate the sociality, so communicative interactional imperatives, of middle leading practices.

Capitalising on the ‘practice turn’ in education (Kemmis et al., 2014), the papers in this symposium utilise practice theories to explore the nature and influence of middle leaders’ communicative practices as they engage in their leading work. Broad questions for the collection of papers consider the relationship between middle leading practices (what actually happens), the sociality (the intersubjective and interpersonal), the situatedness (the site-ontological responsiveness) and the enabling and constraining conditions (or practice architectures) which influence the day-to-day practices of middle leaders. Practice theories attend assiduously to the site in both existential and ontological terms as being sited (in actual places where things happen), not just as a location in an abstract and universal matrix of space-time (Kemmis et al., 2014, pp. 214-215). In this light, the papers aim to show how middle leaders leading the practice development of their colleagues recognise and respond to the local contingencies ‘at work’ in the site. This reciprocally requires a theory of practice that treats middle leading practices as situated, socially, dialogically, ontologically and temporally constituted. This view of practices is important for considering, as the papers in this symposium do, ways the communication practices enacted by middle leaders are comprised of practices that promote and embody dialogue, relationality and responsivity.

This paper presents critique of the development of “co-leading” (Spillane et al., 2008) practices among principals’ and teachers’ in a distributed model for school improvement initiative implemented in primary schools in a Swedish municipality. “Co-leading” is a collaborative practice whereby principals and teachers, as middle leaders (Rönnerman et al., 2018), work in a distributed leadership model for school improvement. “Co-leading”, recommended in the state public inquiry report The Trust Delegation (Bringselius, 2018), draws on the theoretical framework of distributed leadership which values the mutual execution of leading (Spillane, 2006). The notion of distribution argues for others than formal leaders to have authority to lead (Liljenberg, 2015) in orientations focused on ‘power-with’ rather than ‘power-over’ (Møller, 2002). “Co-leading” is built on a foundation of trust, openness, transparency, tolerance and reciprocal accountability which require genuine collaboration and communication between the leaders. Importantly, ‘accountability’ means recognising the mutual relationship between answerability, responsibility, and capacity-building (Hatch, 2013). Over four years a distributed leadership model involving principals and teachers as “co-leaders” with site responsive assignments focused on leading school improvement was developed in the Stenungsund municipality. The project design, inspired by Ekholm’s (1989) infrastructure model based on Miles’ (1965) understanding of social life in organizations, involved principals and teachers as middle leaders being assigned tasks, responsibilities, and mandates to lead school-based activities for teachers’ professional learning. Critical reflection, evaluation, and analysis of participant feedback found that to make the distributed leadership practice work, requires leaders at all levels to take explicit accountability for their assignments. Lack of clear assignment descriptions tended to limit co-leaders work to simply passing on information and administration (Harris, 2014). Multiple dimensions of accountability were found, including: • Individual teachers’ accountability for instructional development. • Teaching staff’s collective accountability in educational practice development. • Individual “co-leaders” accountability in collective developing an improvement area. • “Co-leader” networks collective accountability in developing an improvement area. • Networks coordinators’ accountability for the development of “co-leaders” learning and leading of teachers’ learning. • Principals’ accountability in leading individual “co-leaders” and their network. • Head of schools’ accountability in leading principals’ learning and leading. Findings provide insight into ways the co-leader initiative has implications for designing professional learning through a systematic and collaborative process where co-leaders work together to develop mutual understandings of what reciprocal accountability must entail. Results also show that a successful distributed leadership practice including teachers builds capacity for middle leader development.

Bringselius, L. (2018). Styra och leda med tillit – Forskning och praktik. SOU 2018:38. Utbildningsdepartementet, Stockholm. Ekholm, M. (1989). Att organisera en skola. In, L. Svedberg & M. Zaar (Eds), Skolans själ (s. 17–36). Utbildningsförlaget. Harris, A. (2014). Distributed leadership matters: Perspectives, Practicalities, and Potential. Corwin. Hatch, T. (2013). Beneath the surface of accountability: Answerability, responsibility and capacity-building in recent education reforms in Norway. Journal of Educational Change, 14 (2), 113-138. Liljenberg, M. (2015). Distributing leadership to establish developing and learning school organisations in the Swedish context. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 43(1), 152-170. Miles, M. (1965). Planned Change and Organizational Health: Figure and Ground. Change Processes in the Public School, (p. 12–34). University of Oregon Press. Møller, J. (2002). Democratic leadership in an age of managerial accountability. Improving Schools, 5(1), 11-20. Rönnerman, K., Edwards-Groves, C., & Grootenboer, P. (2018). Att leda från mitten - lärare driver professionell utveckling [trans: Leading from the middle - Teachers driving professional development]. Lärarförlaget. Spillane, J. (2006). Distributed leadership. Jossey-Bass Spillane, J., Camburn, E., Pustejovsky, J., Pareja, A., & Lewis, G. (2008). Taking a Distributed Perspective: Epistemological and Methodological Trade-offs in Operationalizing the Leader-Plus Aspect. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(2), 189–213.

It is well established that middle leaders make a difference in school development (Edwards-Groves et al., 2019) but understanding their specific leading practices has remained less clear, particularly of those middle leaders who have both teaching and leading responsibilities in schools (Grootenboer et al., 2014, 2020). This paper examines the efficacy of dialogue conferences employed as a participatory approach to supporting middle leaders’ professional learning in a four-year research project investigating middle leaders practices in Australian schools. Dialogue conferences, also known as research circles or study circles, is a methodology rooted in Scandinavian traditions of democracy, collaboration and inclusion (Löfqvist et al., 2019; Rönnerman & Olin, 2012). In this study, dialogue conferences involving middle leaders were used as a collaborative approach for determining the day-to-day practices middle leaders enact when supporting teaching change in their schools. The dialogue conferences had three interrelated purposes: i) member checking, ii) professional learning and dissemination, and iii) data gathering. In this presentation, we focus on the first and second purposes to discuss ways dialogic conferences created conditions which validated the work of middle leaders and simultaneously promoted robust engagement in professional conversations and extended knowledge about nature of middle leading roles and responsibilities. Deductive thematic analysis, using the theory of practice architectures as an analytical framework, showed how participating in the dialogue conferences enabled middle leaders to enter and engage in a democratic dialogic space that valued different ideas, practices, experiences and opinions (Bahktin, 1981). Participants attributed value in the activities (guided, but not governed, by the researchers) that explored their understandings about their own leading practices; and, according to participants, to ‘challenge theoretical thinking’, ‘broaden understanding of professional practices’, ‘boost to confidence in using existing ideas about middle leading work’ and to ‘introduce a valuable new, expanded lexicon about middle leading practices’. To conclude, the dialogue conferences created cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements that enabled middle leader participants to (a) extol the value of encouraging dialogue about their different leading practices; and (b) be reflexively encouraged the develop intersubjective understandings about their own ideas, presuppositions, knowledge and practices. Responding to Forde et al’s (2019) call for focused professional development for middle leaders, results demonstrate the value of dialogue conferences for rigorous intellectual engagement and knowledge generation.

Bakhtin, M. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin. M. Holquist (Ed). Trans. C. Emerson and M. Holquist. University of Texas Press. Edwards-Groves, C., Grootenboer, P., Hardy, I., & Rönnerman, K. (2019). Driving change from ‘the middle’: middle leading for site based educational development, School Leadership & Management, doi10.1080/13632434.2018.1525700 Forde, C., et al. (2019). Evolving policy paradigms of middle leadership in Scottish and Irish education: implications for middle leadership professional development. School Leadership & Management, 39 (3-4), 297-314. Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, & Rönnerman, K. (2014). Leading practice development: Voices from the middle. Professional Development in Education, 41(3), 508-526. Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C. & Rönnerman, K. (2020). Middle Leadership in Schools. Routledge. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. Springer. Löfqvist, C., Månsson Lexell, M., Nilsson, M., & Iwarsson, S. (2019). Exploration of the research circle methodology for user involvement in research on home and health dynamics in old age. Journal of Housing for the Elderly, 33 (2), 85-102. Rönnerman, K., & Olin, A. (2012). Research circles - enabling changes in site based educational development. Paper presented at the Australian Association of Research in Education, Sydney, December, 2012.

This paper critiques middle leadership research, in particular the research presented in this symposium, that address and account for ways the different communicative practices of middle leaders in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden align and disalign - converge and diverge. It contextualises and capitalises on the growing body of international middle leadership research the site-based conditions under which middle leaders work in the different jurisdictions. In particular, the paper discusses the concept of communicative space, and the practices that middle leaders employ, as a productive way to promote teacher professional learning in schools. By drawing across the papers, remarks will be made about the need to understand the nature of how such a space is constituted as practice-in-action. In particular it aims to shed light on what space means in the creation of communicative spaces - as a practice architecture - which promote open productive dialogues, a notion often taken to be a catch-all phrase. It seeks to shed light on the importance of communication practices in middle leader work to extend beyond more common understandings of ‘collaborative learning’ (Fisher, 2013) and ‘communities of practices’ (Wenger, 2000). The discussion will highlight the nature of the spaces and the practices enacted by middle leaders, to consider how in the different international settings these spaces are created, nourished and sustained by the leading practices of middle leaders. The critique will directly highlight how each of the papers from the different national contexts enable and constrain communication through the practices of middle leaders as examined in the research. Questions will be posed the presenting authors related to further research.

Grootenboer, P., Edwards-Groves, C. & Rönnerman, K. (2020). Middle Leadership in Schools: A practical guide for leading learning. Routledge. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing Practices, Changing Education. Springer. Rönnerman, K., Edwards-Groves, C., & Grootenboer, P. (2018). Att leda från mitten - lärare driver professionell utveckling [trans: Leading from the middle - Teachers driving professional development]. Lärarförlaget.

The transition of early career teachers into the teaching job has been a major topic of interest for researchers as well as policy makers over the past three decades. The transition has been described as challenging and posing particular problems (hence ‘practice shock’). As a consequence, in many countries specific support initiatives (professional development) have been set up. However, the issue has not been solved (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). Both research and support initiatives have been criticized for not being effective and even counterproductive, due to the deficit approach they represent (early career teachers are most often conceived of as individual professionals lacking particular competencies which need to be remedied)(Kelchtermans, 2019). Furthermore, significant numbers of early career teachers continue to leave the profession only shortly after entering it, thus intensifying the teacher attrition and aggravating teacher shortage in many countries (see a.o. Craig, 2017).

Both the insights from research and the practical experiences with support programs for early career teachers have shown that surviving the transition into the job and the immediate practice shock in relation to running one’s classes is only part of the issue. The challenges of the induction phase clearly go beyond teachers’ individual competencies in the classroom (i.e. classroom management, didactics and teaching skills). There is growing research evidence that the complexities of becoming a member of the school as an organization are at least as challenging, if not more: negotiating one’s position in the school team and the organizational culture of the school, dealing with the school leadership and different colleagues, carrying the burden of complex and time-consuming administrative work that comes with the responsibilities for one’s students. All this while at the same time developing expertise and sense of identity, keeping up moral commitment and dealing with the emotions and power processes that go with the job. In other words, to properly understand and conceptualize teacher induction, more research is necessary that seeks to unpack the complex interplay between the individual early career teacher and the working conditions (social, infrastructural, cultural, micropolitical). Furthermore, this research should also include more longitudinal methodological designs to document, analyze and understand these processes as they develop over time.

All papers in this symposium aim at contributing to deeper understanding of the contextualized nature of teacher induction, conceiving of context both in its spatial and its temporal dimension. All of them make a contribution to unpacking the complexities of teacher induction and as such contribute to a more valid and appropriate knowledge base to design and implement induction support (professional development).

The papers represent a wide variety of national contexts (Belgium, Czech Republic, Portugal, Sweden), as well as a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to teacher induction. At the same time they also exemplify cases of international collaboration. As a discussant, Anna Sullivan, not only brings yet another national perspective to the matter, but also her solid expertise, overviewing the international research (see a.o. Sullivan et al., 2019).

Workplace conditions play a central role in teachers’ professional development as well as in their morale and career choice commitment. Research has shown the importance of space and place in the construction and negotiation of beginning teachers’ subjectivities (lisahunter, Rossi, Tinning, Flanagan, & Macdonald, 2011), and the role of micro-political literacy on new teachers’ professional development (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002). This paper draws on data from a longitudinal study carried out in Portugal with new teachers as they develop as teachers in the early years of teaching and beyond. Data were collected in different moments through email conversations and semi-structured interviews. A narrative approach (Kelchtermans, 1995; Clandinin, Pushor, & Orr, 2007; Elliott, 2003) was used. In total, 14 teachers participated in the study. Data reported in this paper were collected with the same teachers in different moments during their career and analysed according to a thematic analysis. The longitudinal design permitted to look beyond the very first experiences in the job -often framed as a ‘practice shock’- but reveal the complex ways in which the macro policy context and the micropolitics at school level impacted early career teachers’ experiences. Findings reveal how the shift in the macro context marked by an economic crisis and a shift from a teacher surplus to a teacher shortage led to changes at policy level in terms of school governance, school curriculum and teacher evaluation, which eventually had important consequences for teachers’ identities as well as their operation at the classroom level. Furthermore, the (changes in) the working conditions at the meso-level of the school as organisation were also found to be of crucial importance for a thorough understanding of the induction phase in teacher’s career. The findings deepen our understanding of the essentially relational nature of teaching: the relationships with students, parents and colleagues as well as the way leadership is enacted through social interactions. More in particular the study unpacks how teachers navigate the complexity of their workplace conditions and negotiate their roles as teachers as well as their identities. The paper concludes with discussing a) the consequences for the design and enactment of induction support and professional development opportunities for teachers in their early career; b) how the findings contribute to a more refined and balanced understanding of the complex processes of turnover and teacher attrition in relation to the organisational working conditions.

Clandinin, D. J., Pushor, D., & Orr, A. M. (2007). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58(1), 21–35. Elliott, J. (2005). Using narrative in social research. Qualitative and quantitative approaches. London: Sage. Kechtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002). Micropolitical literacy: Reconstructing a neglected dimension in teaching development. International Journal of Educational Research, 37, 755–767. Kelchtermans, G. (1995) A utilização de biografias na formação de professores. Aprender, 18, 5-20 lisahunter, Rossi, T., Tinning, R., Flanagan, E., & Macdonald, D. (2011). Professional learning places and spaces: The staffroom as a site of beginning teacher induction and transition. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 33–46.

Entering the job as early career teachers (ECTs) has often been described with dramatic metaphors such asbeing in a‘sink or swim‘ situation (Ulvik, Smith & Helleve, 2009), in which ECTs not only find their expertise challenged, but also often experience the ‘emotional rollercoaster’ (Lindqvist et al. 2021) of intense rewarding as well as troubling emotions simultaneously (Wu & Chen, 2018). Although many forms of induction support programs have been put in place, it remains unclear what happens in the time after the first practice shock. Hobson and Ashby (2012) describe reality aftershock, when the support systems end after the first year. In their second year teachers are confronted with the need to stand on their own feet. The aim of the study is to explore how beginning teachers deal with these structural changes in their second year to more fully understand the actual processes following teacher induction over time. Building on symbolic interactionism as the conceptual framework the study focuses on ECTs’ sense-making interactions within their professional context. Special attention is given to the role of emotions as conveyers of meaning and ‘messages’ of what is (morally) at stake in the reality aftershock. Interview data were collected from 23 beginning Swedish teachers at the end of their second year in the job. In line with the theoretical framework, Constructivist Grounded Theory (CGT) was used as a methodological approach for data-analysis, involving coding (initial, focused and theoretical coding), memo-writing and constant comparison to analyze the data (Charmaz 2014). The findings show that the second-year teachers draw on their experiences from the first year as biographical evidence that they have indeed survived the practice shock: “I have been there and ‘done’ it”. This operates as a resource for motivation and stamina to deal with the challenges of the second year. Beyond the agenda of agentic mastery of the daily challenges in the classroom practice, the analysis also shows how these experiences are also reflected in their developing self-understanding as teachers (Kelchtermans, 2009). Critical experiences in this process included classroom management, negotiating of the task perception, building functional and rewarding professional relationships with peers, and appropriate organizational working conditions facilitated by the school leadership. Finally, the findings demonstrate the interplay of the technical, moral and emotional dimensions of the teaching profession and the need to take these into account in the design and implementation of induction programs.

Charmaz, K. (2013). Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage. Hobson, A., & Ashby, P. (2012). Reality aftershock and how to avert it: Second-year teachers’ experiences of support for their professional development. Cambridge Journal of Education, 42(2), 177-196. Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: self‐understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and practice, 15(2), 257-272. Lindqvist, H., Weurlander, M., Wernerson, A., & Thornberg, R. (2023). The emotional journey of the beginning teacher: Phases and coping strategies. Research Papers in Education, 38(4), 615-635. Ulvik, M., Smith, K., & Helleve, I. (2009). Novice in secondary school–the coin has two sides. Teaching and teacher education, 25(6), 835-842. Wu, Z., & Chen, J. (2018). Teachers’ emotional experience: insights from Hong Kong primary schools. Asia Pacific Education Review, 19(4), 531-541.

Much of the research on the high turnover rates during teacher induction assumes that teachers are retained or pushed out of the profession by a particular and static set of factors, either internal in the individual or external in the working conditions (Guarino et al., 2006). In our study we take a different approach, conceiving of turnover (or retention) as the outcome of a decision-making process that reflects the meaningful interactions between individual and context. While not denying the possible relevance of personal characteristics or formal working conditions, we assume that a proper understanding of teacher turnover requires the acknowledgement of ECTs‘ discretionary agentic competences of decision making. The paper starts by building the case for this conceptualisation of attrition/retention drawing on the concept of interpretative negotiation that was developed in recent research on school development and educational innovation (Kelchtermans, 2017; Vermeir & Kelchtermans, 2021). Next, we present the findings of a longitudinal single case study of a Czech primary school teacher, who first decided to leave the profession, later reconsidered her choice and returned to the job, yet eventually left again over the time span of three years. Since this type of career dynamics over time in teacher induction has received only limited research attention (Grissom & Reiniger, 2012; Moyer, 2022), we purposefully selected this case study from a larger study, which reconstructs career trajectories of Czech primary school teachers who decided to quit teaching. The data for the case were collected in line with the narrative-biographical research tradition, drawing on multiple semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2013), complemented by an interpretative analysis of relevant documents (teacher portfolio and school documentation). The data analysis consisted of reconstructing the career story around its key moments and phases, and subsequently elaborating the story through the lens of Kelchtermans’ personal interpretive framework (2009). In this specific case, an interplay between the task perception and self-esteem was found to create a vicious cycle of doubts, subsequently lowering the teacher’s job motivation. Negotiation between this teacher and the work conditions led to dissonance, and to an ambiguous relationship to the profession, causing her to quit and return repeatedly. In the discussion we address the consequences of these findings for future research and theory development on teacher attrition and retention during the induction phase, as well as for the necessary rethinking and redesign of effective support to prevent teacher attrition

Guarino, C. M., Santibañez, L., & Daley, G. A. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature. Review of Educational Research, 76(2), 173–208. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543076002173. Grissom, J.A. & Reininger, M. (2012). Who Comes Back? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Reentry Behavior of Exiting Teachers. Education Finance and Policy, 7, 425–454. Moyer, A. (2022). Has “Who Comes Back” Changed? Teacher Reentry 2000–2019. Educational Researcher, 51, 544-546. Kelchtermans, G. (2017). ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ Unpacking teacher attrition/retention as an educational issue. Teachers and Teaching: Theory & Practice, 23, 961-977. Kelchtermans, G. (2019). Early Career Teachers and Their Need for Support: Thinking Again. In: Sullivan, A., Johnson, B., Simons, M. (eds) Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. Seidman, I. (2013). Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education and the Social Sciences. New York: Teachers College Press Vermeir, K. & Kelchtermans, G. (2022). Unpacking the support practices of educational advisors: congruency, loyalty, legitimacy, and urgency. Journal of Educational Change, 23, 473–495.

Over the last 10 years, we can observe an increased focus in teacher induction research on the importance of supporting early-career teachers (ECTs) for the organizational dimension of their work, especially in high-need schools (Johnson et al., 2012). Nevertheless, there is limited research that reveals the interaction between the ECT, the organization, and the urban context, and what this means for their overall induction process (März & Kelchtermans, 2020). Avoiding a deficit approach (Kelchtermans, 2019) and guided by the notions of resilience (individual) and working conditions (school and urban context), we followed the induction process of 8 ECTs over their first school year as they entered the teaching profession in an urban setting (i.e., Brussels). Following ECTs surrounded by diverse working conditions (e.g., different employment contracts, with some working full-time in a single organization, and others holding contracts in multiple schools), our paper addresses two research questions: 1) How do early-career teachers experience their socialization into the organizational dimension of teachers’ work; and 2) How can these experiences be explained in terms of the interplay between individual sense-making (agency) on the one hand and organizational working conditions (structure) on the other? Data are being collected through multiple semi-structured narrative interviews (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) in a three-year longitudinal qualitative design (of which the paper presents only the findings of year 1, with two interviews conducted at the beginning and the end of their first school year). The presentation of the findings will focus on the specific way in which the particular urban context as well as organizational working conditions impact the induction process of the ECTs and their retention/attrition.

Clandinin, D., & Connelly, F. (2000). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. John Wiley & Sons. Johnson, S., Kraft, M., & Papay, J. (2012). How context matters in high-need schools: The effects of teachers’ working conditions on their professional satisfaction and their students’ achievement. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 114(10), 1‑39. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811211401004 Kelchtermans, G. (2019). Early career teachers and their need for support: Thinking again. In A. Sullivan et al. (Eds.), Attracting and Keeping the Best Teachers. Issues and Opportunities (pp. 83‑99). Springer. März, V., & Kelchtermans, G. (2020). The networking teacher in action: A qualitative analysis of early career teachers’ induction process. Teaching and Teacher Education, 87, 1‑15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2019.102933