Developing and sustaining professional learning communities within School-Centred Initial Teacher Training in England

Author: Derek Boyle

As part of the IPDA 2022 conference proceedings, I presented a practice spotlight session which illustrates how the role of lead mentors within Initial Teacher Training in a school-centred provider exemplifies collaborative professionalism and provides the stimulus for capacity building across an organisation.  The session explored how sustainable professional development networks can be used to support the development of mentoring capacity within a co-operative of schools that are not linked through structures such as multi-academy trusts.  The role of the lead mentor in developing professional learning within their own schools and across the co-operative was explored leading to an exploration of the critical role that these teachers play within the training of new teachers. 

The work presented exemplified ideas of collaborative professionalism and the development of professional learning communities across partnership schools as exemplified in the work of Hargreaves and O’Connor (2018), Door (2014), Opfer and Pedder (2011), Cordingley et al (2015) and Carnie et al (2015) 

The 10 tenets of collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves and O’Connor 2018) and the 5 drivers for this, were explored within the talk and these are currently being adapted and embedded within our organisation to shift the lens from developing the outcomes for pupils to trainee teachers. 

Our organisation is formed from a cooperative of schools that came together to provide School-Centred Initial Teacher Training which leads to Qualified Teacher status (QTS) within England.  This is part of the professional formation of beginner teachers and can be delivered through partnerships of schools or via a university-led route.  Within our structure, the schools form a partnership of equals without a hierarchy or an overarching structure such as a Multi-Academy Trust which is a feature of the structure of the English Education system. 

The conceptualisation of Professional Learning Communities within each of our placement schools is at an advanced stage within our organisation, and we are now exploring how we utilise a Professional Learning Network framework between our partnership schools to strengthen cooperation between schools.  The links between our placement schools are well-established, but the framing of these within cross-institution structures that is a Professional Learning Network is being undertaken at the moment. 

The role of the Lead Mentor within each of our schools is currently undertaken by our Senior Mentors who form the programme management team that implements our Initial Teacher Training programme.  This role will be developing rapidly across the teacher training sector in England, in response to the ITT Market Review that all providers are currently working through.  This is a policy direction being instigated by the Department for Education (DfE 2022) where the role and function of many aspects of the delivery of Initial Teacher Training are being transformed. 

This evolution of the role of the Lead Mentor within school-based structures such as ours, and also for the placement schools used by university-based programmes, provides a systemic challenge for everyone involved in the training and professional formation of new teachers within England.  The work presented during this practice spotlight session explained how we have conceived this evolving role within schools as well as the opportunities and challenges that this presents.  Our organisation was founded in 1993 and features a relatively fixed family of schools that work together to train new teachers for our own schools, but also the local area.  This has advantages over the network of placement schools that Universities utilise for the professional placement parts of their programmes, because we can deepen and develop the expertise of those involved within the programme over years.  This helps us to foster emerging talent within the organisation and to provide a structured professional development pathway for those who want to be involved in the training and development of new teachers. 

• Carnie, M., Dolan, D. and Seagle, D., (2015) Intentional collaborations:  building a virtual community of mentoring and practice.  AACU Fall 2015, Vol. 17, No. 4   
• Cordingley, P., et al (2015) Developing Great Teaching: Lessons from the international reviews into effective professional development. Teacher Development Trust. 
• Door, V (2014)., Developing Creative and Critical Educational Practitioners. Critical Publishing 
• Department for Education (2022) Initial Teacher Training Market Review: Overview https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review/initial-teacher-training-itt-market-review-overview (Accessed 12th Dec 2022) 
• Hargreaves, A and O’Connor, M T (2018) Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning For All, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA.  
• Opfer, V. D. and Pedder, D. (2011) ‘Conceptualizing Teacher Professional Learning’, Review of Educational Research, 81(3), pp. 376–407.   

Further reading 

• Poortman, C. L., & Brown, C. (2018). The importance of professional learning networks. In Networks for learning (pp. 10–19). Routledge. 
• Expert Panel on Literacy and Numeracy Instruction for Students with Special Educational Needs (2005) Education For All, Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto, ON. 
• Handscomb, G. and Brown, C. (2022) The Power of Professional Learning Networks. John Catt Publishing