Critiquing teacher professional development: teacher learning within the field of teachers' work

Abstract

This study is an empirical account of the professional development (PD) practices that constituted part of the work of a group of teachers and school-based administrators working together in a cluster of six schools in southeast Queensland, Australia, during a period of intense educational reform. The data comprise meeting transcripts and interviews with teachers and administrators involved in a reform-oriented professional development initiative over an 18-month period. To analyse these teacher learning practices as teachers' work in this context, the article draws upon Bourdieu's theory of practice, particularly his understanding of the social world as comprising multiple social spaces, or ‘fields’, each characterised by contestation over the practices of most value. The data reveal the field of teachers' work, in which much of the teacher learning transpired, as influenced by a broader instrumental culture; this culture developed in response to teachers' concerns about how to respond to state educational provision initiatives in a more neoliberal global era. These instrumental logics were evident in superficial compliance with and reflection upon educational reform and the continuation of individualistic, workshop-based PD practices. However, at the same time and in keeping with fields as contested, there is also evidence of teachers' participation in more sustained PD practices – involving teachers actively engaging with the content of educational reform, participating in robust reflection about their practice and collaborating in substantive communities of learners. The findings also suggest the need to explicitly support substantive PD within the field of teachers' work in order to challenge more administrative and instrumental pressures to engage in reform. Such a response will assist in fostering the conditions for the generation of a more truly student-centred, collaborative and reflective habitus amongst teachers.

Keywords:

• Bourdieu
• educational reform
• teacher professional development
• teachers' work

Acknowledgements

This paper (and the special-issue) have been a long time in the making. I would particularly like to thank Bill Green for his support and patience in helping to bring them to fruition. Both the paper and special issue developed from a seminar undertaken in 2006 at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, which involved several participants in this special issue, including the special-issue editors, Pat Thomson and Jill Blackmore. Bill's sponsorship of this seminar in his capacity as Sub-Dean Research, Charles Sturt University, was instrumental in the development of the ideas presented in the special issue. I would also like to thank my co-editors, Shaun Rawolle and Jane Wilkinson for many interesting and engaging discussions during the writing process. Thank you to the two anonymous reviewers for their considered feedback on the article and the editorial staff for their assistance in finalising the special issue. The paper was developed from doctoral research originally supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award federal government scholarship.

Notes

1. Pseudonyms are used for the names of schools, teachers and other participants in this study.