The value of the personal in teachers’ professional learning: a case study

Abstract

Michael Fielding has written about the dangers of over-emphasis on the functional in schooling and a subordination of the personal. He wrote of, ‘… the need to situate our work within an historical context that requires judgement about matters of significance and purpose, not mere efficiency and effectiveness …’ (Fielding 2007, p. 383). The research findings presented here were analysed using this framework within the context of teachers’ professional learning. We drew on interview data from 11 teachers who, as one part of their professional development, were undertaking MA degrees in education. We explored: how far they saw the personal as the ultimate aim in education; the functional in relation to personal in teacher development; transformation and dynamism within teacher learning, which reflected the personal; and the role of challenge and critical reflection within the functional to serve the personal. The MAs our teachers engaged in seemed to provide opportunities for learning that reflected personal goals. These included: the spaces to interact with teachers from a range of backgrounds; encouragement to explore existing published educational research; provision of teaching that could provide a model for their own practice; and support for carrying out action research into an area of practice that each individual found important.

Keywords:

• teacher development
• functional versus personal
• learning
• teaching
• government policy on teachers’ learning

Acknowledgements

Thanks are due to the Society for Educational Studies who funded this project. The authors are also grateful to Alex Moore, Raphael Wilkins and David Halpin who provided comments on earlier versions of this piece. And of course, the authors thank the 11 teachers who took part so willingly in the research.