01. Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Exploring the Professional Development Journey of Portuguese Teachers: Factors Shaping Five Decades of Practice
Rita Tavares Sousa1, Amélia Lopes2, Leanete Thomas Dotta3
1University of Porto, Portugal; 2University of Porto, Portugal; 3Centro de estudos interdisciplinares em educação e desenvolvimento - CeiED - universidade lusófona
Presenting Author: Sousa, Rita Tavares
It has been established that effective professional learning does not exclusively rely on intentional and planned development opportunities. In fact, formal and traditional kinds of training, such as courses, workshops and conferences are well represented in almost all education systems, however, other forms of continuing professional development are “emerging with activities that are more peer-based, collaborative, less structured, and focused on grass roots involvement” (Eurydice, 2015: 12). According to Evans (2019), professional development is not limited to intentional initiatives and opportunities, but rather occur as part of everyday working life, within normal working environments and contexts.
Professional development empowers teachers to take ownership of their learning and professional growth, fostering a sense of agency and efficacy in their roles as educators. Effective approaches to professional development, which may be defined as what happens when teachers attempt new practices and processes in their work (Saunders, 2014), implies teachers’ professional commitment to learning, professional autonomy, with an active and reflective attitude, in which they are both learners and teachers (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1995; Čepić et al., 2015). Reflection and research on teachers’ own teaching practice seem to be key aspects leading to continuous improvement in their professional practice.
A reflective teacher is someone who is able to reflect on their practice, question their assumptions and make informed decisions based on this. This reflection can take place during practice (reflection in action) or after practice (reflection on action) (Schön, 1992). Research seems to be closely connected with reflection, a concept that can be tied to the notion of teachers as researchers (Schön, 2000; Zeichner, 1993). Zeichner (2003) suggests that teachers should engage in research regarding their own practices as a means of professional development. By doing so, teachers enhance their skills and effectiveness, leading to an improved quality of learning for their students.
Nonetheless, the way teachers perceive research may be complex due to the different meanings and interpretations (Sousa et al., 2019). For example, there can be conceptions of research with an orientation toward external products where the intention is to produce an outcome and conceptions that are holistic and analytical with an orientation towards internal processes where the intention is to understand (Brew, 2003). Cain (2016) also delved into how teachers engage with research and identified two primary motives: intrinsic, driven by practical and professional needs like seeking solutions to teaching challenges, self-reflection, and knowledge enhancement; and extrinsic, including aspirations for career advancement, prompted by school leadership, or pursuit of further qualifications. According to Lopes et al. (2023, p.11) “research is related to knowledge about the practice and problem solving, but also with the empowerment of teachers’ ability to identify problems and interpret situations in the light of shared knowledge with the community of educational researchers. It corresponds to a ‘mature professionalism’, which is based on continuous professional development based on learning”.
Also, a distinctive feature of teachers' professional development is the fact that we refer to an occupational group whose professional status and working conditions vary from country to country, from context to context (Caena, 2014; Darling-Hammond, 2017). National specificity with regard to professional development and career regulation becomes an important variable when delving into studies related to the professional development of teachers.
Considering this background, this study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the professional development journey of Portuguese teachers in the last 50 years and to inform on the factors enabling or constraining this process, namely personal, social, political, and institutional contexts.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedIn Portugal, where the research study is carried out, the generation of teachers that is now retiring has lived through one of the most important periods in the development of the educational system. As such, it is important to capture the accumulated experiential knowledge these teachers detain. According to Rabin and Smith, “it is common for long-time teachers to retire or leave the profession without sharing their stories” (2012, p. 382). However, life stories related to the time span of a professional life provide information about the personal variables of career development and about the social, political, curricular and pedagogical conditions that generate and are generators of different “periods of practice” (Goodson & Ümarik, 2019, p. 592) throughout that time span. This inside knowledge allows one to identify “how teachers create educational theories within the possibilities and constraints of their circumstances - biographical, historical and political, geographical, cultural and discursive” (Middleton, 1996 p. 543).
This paper is related to the funded project project "Fifty years of teaching: factors of change and intergenerational dialogue - FYT-ID” (PTDC/CED-EDG/1039/2021), and is based on the collection and analysis of life stories of teachers whose professional careers began between 1973 and 1983, and its primary goal is to study the progression of the educational system in Portugal through the lens of teachers' experiences. This paper intends to identify the various factors that either enable or constrain the professional development of teachers over the last five decades, considering personal, social, political, and institutional contexts. To achieve this goal, we focused on the life stories of 100 Portuguese teachers spanning various educational levels, subject domains, and geographic regions. The professional ethos guiding this study is rooted in the archetype of a teacher who is dedicated and adaptable, epitomizing the concept of teacher agency. To this end, data were gathered through semi-structured interviews designed to elicit detailed accounts of the participants' professional journeys. Subsequently, a paradigmatic analysis was conducted.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsFrom the preliminary data analysis, it is possible to trace the professional development journey of Portuguese teachers through the last 50 years, pinpointing the various factors that either enabled or constrained this process throughout the years. Reflection and training are very much present in these teachers’ professional lives, with them being involved in continuous training, either to improve their knowledge, skills, and teaching and pedagogical practice or to increase their qualifications and move up the career ladder. Reflection, either on an institutional level - involving the whole school – or personal level - inflection of their practice resulting from reflection – is a significative aspect of these teachers’ professional lives.
In this sense, it is also possible to identify incidents of different natures - personal, social, political, and institutional levels - that impacted teachers' career paths and that, consequently, impacted their professional ideals and professional development. These moments are, for instance, linked with factors directly related to their educational practice with students, factors based on institutional relations, namely school management and organization, relations with the community, and ongoing teacher training activities, and factors based on educational and social policies and the general social context.
By shedding light on the multifaceted nature of teachers' professional development, the paper may provide valuable insights for policymakers, educational leaders, and practitioners to enhance teacher education programmes, support systems, and professional development opportunities.
ReferencesBrew, A. (2003). Teaching and research: New relationships and their implications for inquiry-based teaching and learning in higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 22(1), 3–18.
Caena, Francesca (2014). Comparative glocal perspectives on European teacher education. European Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 106-122.
Čepić, R., Vorkapić, S. T., Lončarić, D., Anđić, D. & Mihić, S. S. (2015). Considering Transversal Competences, Personality and Reputation in the Context of the Teachers’ Professional Development. International Education Studies, 8(2), 8-20.
Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher education around the world: What can we learn from international practice? European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(3), 291-309.
Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M. W. (1995). Policies that support professional development in an era of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76(8), 597–604.
Eurydice. (2015). The teaching profession in Europe: Practices, perceptions, and policies. Eurydice report. Publications Office of the European Union. https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/national-policies/eurydice/content/teaching-profession-europe-practices-perceptions-and-policies_en
Evans, L. (2019). Implicit and informal professional development: what it ‘looks like’, how it occurs, and why we need to research it , Professional Development in Education, 45(1), 3-16.
Goodson, I. F., & Ümarik, M. (2019). Changing policy contexts and teachers´ work-life narratives: the case of Estonian vocational teachers. Teachers and Teaching, 25(5), 589-602. doi:10.1080/13540602.2019.1664300
Lopes, A., Folque, A., Marta, M. & Sousa, R. T. (2023). Teacher professionalism towards transformative education: insights from a literature review. Professional Development in Education.
Middleton, S. (1996). Towards an oral history of educational ideas in New Zealand as a resource for teacher education. Teaching and Teacher Education, 12(5), 543-560.
Rabin, C., & Smith, G. (2012). Stories from Five Decades: How One Teacher's Theatricality, Courage, and Creativity Shaped a Life's Work. Action in Teacher Education, 34(4), 381-391.
Saunders, R. (2014). Effectiveness of research-based teacher professional development. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 39(4), 166–184.
Schön, A. D. (2000). Educando o profissional reflexivo: Um novo design para o ensino e a aprendizagem. ArtMed.
Schön, D. (1992). The Reflective Practitioner. London: Routledge.
Sousa, R. T., Lopes, A., & Boyd, P. (2019). Research: An insight on how it is valued by Portuguese and English teacher educators. Teaching Education, 30(4), 393–414.
Zeichner, K. (1993). A formação reflexiva de professores: Ideias e práticas. Educa.
Zeichner, K. (2003). Teacher research as professional development for P–12 educators in the USA. Educational Action Research, 11(2), 301–326.
01. Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Uncovering the Experiences of Educational Design Research: A New Path for Teachers’ Professional Learning in the Curriculum Reform in China
Mengting Liu, David Gurr, Ryan Dunn
University of Melbourne, Australia
Presenting Author: Liu, Mengting
Educational Design Research (EDR) emerged as a teacher professional inquiry approach in the 1990s (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). It is a process that involves teachers and researchers collaborating to research teaching and learning for the purpose of improving both teaching practice and theoretical understandings through cycles of experimenting and refining (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). EDR has proven effective for teacher professional learning (PL) in many contexts (e.g., Dunn et al., 2019; Lim, 2022), but it is relatively new to China.
China has made significant strides in its curriculum and teaching reform by implementing the New National Curriculum Standard. This updated national document provides a comprehensive framework for curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment. One of the most prominent concepts in this framework is large-unit teaching, which has become a trend and marks a significant change in teaching. As a result, there is a pressing need for an effective approach to help teachers learn how to design their lessons based on the large-unit concept as per the New National Curriculum Standard.
Accordingly, this study aims to research EDR in the Chinese context and examine whether it is an effective approach to help Chinese teachers adapt their lesson design to the trend of large unit design and the requirements of the New National Curriculum Standard. The goal is to bridge the literature gap and address the reality need for teacher professional learning in the Chinese context and other contexts within the broader global background of curriculum reform. The anticipated outcome of this study is to promote a better understanding of teacher professional learning and contribute to how EDR supports it in general.
A particular focus of this study is placed on understanding the characteristics and process of teacher change that occurs as a result of EDR and how the dynamic interplay of external and internal factors affects teacher learning in EDR. This focus formulates the research questions: (1) What changes in teacher teaching practice, knowledge, perspectives, and emotions occur during the different phases of teacher participation in EDR? (2) How does the dynamic interplay of external and internal factors affect teacher learning in EDR?
The first theoretical framework is the model of teacher professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002). It proposes that teacher change occurs naturally in a professional community dealing with four domains — external domain, personal domain, domain of practice, and domain of consequence, mediated by enactment and reflection. It resonates with EDR in that it involves teachers and researchers collaborating throughout the process to study teaching and learning in a specific subject area, for the purpose of improving both teaching practices and theoretical understandings through cycles of testing and refining. During the process, a single sequence or change network should capture dynamic changes across domains.
The second theoretical framework is teacher learning mechanisms by Sims et al. (2022) in their systematic review. They reviewed the conditions for teacher learning in professional development and proposed a series of teacher learning mechanisms targeted at developing teachers’ insights, goals, techniques, and practices (I/G/T/P). This provides a plausible framework for this study to examine what combinations of causally active components EDR involves. From the first framework, we already know the external factors and their interactions with teachers and their practice, but little about the working mechanisms. Therefore, this framework is used to explore how external factors connected with EDR interplay with teachers’ internal factors, thus influencing their learning.
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe research is a case study examining teachers’ EDR experiences in a nine-month professional learning initiative. The professional learning initiative will be focused on designing the class package related to the introduction of the New English Curriculum national education initiative in one secondary public school in Beijing. This initiative will be something that will be occurring regardless of the research. The research seeks to understand the teacher learning that occurs during the initiative. The research involves four phases: initial analysis, intervention introduction, intervention implementation and post-analysis.
The research participants include 1 professional learning leader, 8 junior high school English teachers from grade 7, 6 senior high school English teachers from grade 10, the class students of the teacher participants, and 5 school leaders (including the principal, vice principal in charge of the school curriculum reform, the director of the teacher professional centre, and the grade leaders of each of the two grades). The study will involve surveying students and observing their classes; surveying, interviewing (both in groups and individually) and observing teachers; asking the professional learning leader to keep a reflective journal; individually interviewing school leaders; and keeping researcher field notes of the session and classroom observations.
Teacher focus groups, individual interviews with school leaders and teachers, along with the professional learning leader’s journals, and teacher surveys will be transcribed. They will be analysed through thematic analysis and coded as the teacher professional growth model (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002), i.e., external domain, personal domain, domain of practice, and domain of consequence. There will also be quantitative results from student surveys through the Likert scale responses. They will be used to triangulate the findings from the interviews and journal sources mentioned above. Thematic analysis will be used to solve the first research question.
Based on thematic analysis, contextual analysis will be conducted on the researcher’s field notes. The method is useful for providing interpretive accounts of teachers’ self-expressions from the researcher’s perspectives, not only to triangulate the stated points but also to add up those that have not been stated by teachers but are perceived by the researcher. We will adopt a three-step analysis method of narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 2004): broadening, storying and restoring, and burrowing. The teacher learning mechanisms (Sims et al., 2022) serve as a framework for contextual analysis to validate, interpret, and supplement, thus answering the second research question.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsUntil now, this study has completed the initial analysis, intervention introduction, and the first of three cycles of intervention implementation. So far it is found that there are two major patterns of change network. More change sequences will complement the networks in the upcoming two cycles and more interpretative accounts of the networks should be provided through contextual analysis.
It was found that many teachers noted/presented that their knowledge and perspective had changed after the introduction phase. The change in their knowledge was indicated from three aspects, including curriculum knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and knowledge of learners. The change in their perspectives was reflected in their understanding of large-unit teaching and their recognition of its value. However, senior teachers, particularly those from grade 10, who had over 8 years of experience, did not notice any significant changes from this phase. They claimed that they were already familiar with the information introduced by the workshops and that the activities only helped them to understand large-unit teaching systematically but did not offer anything new.
During the first cycle, it was found that the first type of teachers tried to transfer what they had learned from the introduction phase to the first-time analysis and design. New pedagogical knowledge was input through designing together with the professional learning leader at this stage. Perspectives were changed when they saw how well the large-unit teaching could be designed rather than an abstract concept in the standard. They also changed their practice afterwards. The feedback from themselves and their students afterwards, including homework, unit projects, and assessment rubrics, convinced them that the approach was useful. However, the second type of teachers received negative feedback after they made subtle changes to their practice, then they doubted large unit teaching and showed resistance to the external factors.
ReferencesClandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (2004). Narrative inquiry: Experience and story in qualitative research. John Wiley & Sons.
Clarke, D., & Hollingsworth, H. (2002). Elaborating a model of teacher professional growth. Teaching & Teacher Education, 18(8), 947-967. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00053-7
Dunn, R., Hattie, J., & Bowles, T. (2019). Exploring the experiences of teachers undertaking Educational Design Research (EDR) as a form of teacher professional learning. Professional Development in Education, 45(1), 151-167. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2018.1500389
Guo, R. N., Tuo, H.Y. (2023). The Exploring of the Effects of Unit Integral Teaching on Junior High School English Homework Based on the Background of the “Double Reduction” Policy. The Educational Review, USA, 7(5), 630-642. https://doi.org/10.26855/er.2023.05.018
Lim, F. V. (2022). A Design-Based Research Approach to the Teaching and Learning of Multiliteracies. The Asia-Pacific Education Researcher, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-022-00683-0
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2019). Conducting educational design research. Routledge.
Sims, S., Fletcher-Wood, H., O’Mara-Eves, A., Cottingham, S., Stansfield, C., Goodrich, J., ... & Anders, J. (2022). Effective Teacher Professional Development: New Theory and a Meta-Analytic Test. EdWorkingPaper No. 22-507. Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED616856.pdf
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