Historicising teachers’ learning: a case study of productive professional practice

Abstract

This paper reveals the significant historical traces which informed the learning practices of teachers at one particular school site in a rural and regional educational district in Australia. Drawing upon recent theorising into professional practice, the paper argues that teacher learning practices are intrinsically ‘ecologically’ related to teachers’ practices at specific sites. However, extending beyond this theorising, the research also reveals how teacher learning – in the case presented, in relation to classroom dialogue – is also significantly influenced by earlier learning experiences of the teachers involved. In this way, teachers’ practices are revealed as not only influenced by present-day, site-specific, whole-school teacher learning, but also by particular events encountered by teachers at an earlier phase of their careers. The research argues for a conception of teachers’ learning which is not only site-informed and ecologically arranged, but also deeply temporally embedded.

Keywords:

• Teacher learning
• history
• ecologies of practices
• practice architectures
• classroom dialogue

Notes

1. All names are pseudonyms.

2. Developed by Marie Clay (New Zealand) and associates, Reading Recovery is an intensive intervention programme designed to support reading and writing development amongst children in their second year of schooling.

3. PETA has since been renamed the Primary English Teaching Association of Australia (PETAA).

4. First Steps is a programme of ongoing professional development in literacy education initially designed in the 1980s by the Education Department of Western Australia and Edith Cowan University.

5. Although not recognised as English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers, many students exhibited language expression more typically associated with ESL speakers. While Monique referred to students with Italian backgrounds in this quote, she made several references to students from Indian backgrounds in subsequent comments. (We are also conscious of the multifarious nature of ‘English’ expression, and that various forms of creolised English are not ‘inferior’ forms of English, but instead part of the broader tapestry of important and valued languages. Recognition of multiple forms of English, and capacity to express oneself in more dominant conceptions of English expression, are important social justice issues.)

6. A colloquial reference to providing teachers with large amounts of information.