Professional learning and its (in)ability to empower professionals to make a difference

At a recent editorial board meeting of Professional Development in Education (PDiE) members discussed what it means to be ‘more than a journal’? As a board we want to engage with all those interested in education by asking difficult and/or different questions focused on the purpose and possibilities of professional learning in a bid to challenge some current orthodoxies. We have begun posing these questions in our editorials in the journal and have hosted various seminars and symposia to initiate discussions and get feedback to further develop understanding in the field. To extend these conversations we have committed to writing blog posts for the IPDA website linked to current editorial papers. In this way we hope to reach a wider audience, stimulate further discussions and receive a broader range of responses. 

This blog post links with the editorial on Professional Learning: Empowering Teachers? in issue 45(2), 2019. In this blog I would like to challenge our thinking about professional learning and its (in)ability to empower professionals to make a difference and I look forward to varied responses to collectively deepen current understandings in the field. Many professionals enter the profession to make a difference. We have a moral purpose. 

For example, my moral purpose as a teacher and teacher educator centres on inclusion and enabling all learners to be active participants in our schools, communities and wider society. This can be challenging where countries striving for competitive advantage tend to introduce a plethora of policies focused on raising literacy and numeracy standards with relative lip service provided to issues of equity and inclusion at a time of increasingly diverse classrooms and increasing  poverty and homelessness in several countries. It is noteworthy that many countries are attempting to foreground issues of social justice and inclusion in policy. Nevertheless the reality is often characterised by teachers feeling under pressure to focus on results and to compete with each other rather than collaborate to enhance inclusive practices. When such tensions exist it is not unusual for teachers to lose sight of their values or moral purpose (King and Robinson, 2017) and find themselves in a ‘living contradiction’ (Whitehead, 1989). Arguably similar issues exist for many other professions.

So how do we reconcile a focus on individual learner strengths and engaging learners in learning that is meaningful to them in their context, with national and international imperatives for improving outcomes and standards to enhance the knowledge economy? 

For me, professional learning plays a pivotal role in empowering teachers to stay close to their moral values. A first step may be professional learning centred on supporting individual teachers and schools to engage in challenging and courageous conversations, to be able to articulate their values and beliefs around the purpose of education. Additionally an awareness of how these values align with or differ from the current political agenda at the meso and macro levels is important in order to look for and find the spaces within which to use our individual and collective agency to make changes aligned with our values and practice. 

Noteworthy is the emphasis on this being a collective endeavour focused on developing both individual teachers’ human capital but also the social capital within a school or organization. This is of particular importance in focusing on inclusion which requires social learning processes to influence values, beliefs and practices (Ainscow and Sandill, 2010). One of the many challenges in this regard is finding the time and space for ‘critical conversations’ (Ryan, 2014), ‘complicated discussions’ (Lopez, 2014) and ‘critical dialogue’ which is generally accepted as one of the most important pedagogies of effective teacher learning (Parker, Parker, Patton & O’Sullivan, 2016). 

Perhaps this blog can provide a ‘space’ for these conversations and maybe we can learn from our colleagues in other disciplines, such as health professionals, in terms of how they address such issues. I would love to hear your views on professional learning and its [in]ability to empower you and your colleagues to make a difference in your context. For anyone interested in engaging further in the conversation they can read the editorial and related papers in the current issue of PDiE which draws on a variety of papers from across the globe. 

References

• Ainscow, M., & Sandill, A. (2010). Developing inclusive education systems: The role of organisational cultures and leadership.International Journal of Inclusive Education, 14(4), 401-416.
• King, F., & Robinson, K. (2017). Making Sense of It All: Values, Relationships and a Way Forward. Research in Educational Administration and Leadership(REAL), 2(1):128-138. http://dergipark.gov.tr/real/issue/31275 [Open Access]
• Lopez, A. E. (2014). Re-conceptualising teacher leadership through curriculum inquiry in pursuit of social justice: Case study from the Canadian context. (Vol 1, pp. 323-339). In I. Bogotch & C. Shields (Eds.), International handbook of educational leadership and social [in]justice. London: Springer.
• Parker, M., Patton, K., & O’Sullivan, M. (2016). Signature pedagogies in support of teachers’ professional learning.Irish Educational Studies, 35(2), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2016.1141700
• Ryan, J. (2014). Promoting Inclusive Leadership in Diverse Schools. (Vol 1, pp. 360-376). In: I. Bogotch and C. Shields (Eds.), International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social [In]justice. London: Springer. 
• Whitehead, J. (1989). Creating a living educational theory from questions of the kind, “how do I improve my practice?”.Cambridge Journal of Education, 19(1), 41-52.

Author: Dr Fiona King, fiona.king@dcu.ie.