Unravelling effective professional development: a rhizomatic inquiry into coaching and the active ingredients of teacher learning

ABSTRACT

Teacher professional development (PD) is about change. One of the most prominent lines of research on PD addresses what makes it an effective change process. This research produces critical features of effective PD, the seemingly active ingredients of teacher change that are meant to guide professionals in the design, implementation, and evaluation of PD programmes. Embedded within this research is a linear, hierarchical, causal mono-logic model that is the hallmark of Western rational thought. Rhizomatic thought, with its non-linear perspectives, offers a contrast, highlighting the unpredictable multiplicity of complex systems that embrace the emergent dynamics of becoming and hybridity. In this paper, we look at features of effective PD through a rhizomatic lens, with a focus on PD as mapping and tracing. Drawing on vignettes from two case studies from a year-long pedagogical coaching PD programme, we explore how effective features of PD can be unravelled in practice and rewoven into vibrant hybridity within real-world school contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional development
• rhizomatics
• educational coaching
• professional learning
• non-linear theory
• teacher learning

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest is reported.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Manuscript currently unpublished.

2. The exception is content focus, for which is there is not one but a number of alternatives (See Kennedy 1998).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Education National Professional Development Grant [T365Z110203] through the Office of English Language Acquisition [T365Z110203];