Teacher decision-making as a fulcrum for teacher development: exploring structures of growth

Abstract

This study followed three diverse teachers – an elementary, a high school English and a mathematics teacher – over a 10-year period in the classroom. Framed by more emergent and situated notions of teacher development, this study has examined the role that teacher agency and decision making play in teacher development. Over time, each of the three teachers began to teach in a ‘new key’. Many factors and contexts contributed to this process. Paramount to this change were the complex choices they made in their practice that reflected their questions about student learning. Secondly, each of these teachers held a love of the process of teaching for learning. In addition, each of these teachers established powerful collaborative contexts for themselves and for their students. It was found that, over time, these teachers developed a powerful cycle of support for themselves, combining their craft knowledge, classroom questions, collaboration, reflection and decision making.