‘The ability to lay yourself bare’: centering rupture, inherited conversations, and vulnerability in professional development

ABSTRACT

A dominant paradigm for research on teacher professional development has centred teacher learning as created in and through practice. Critical scholars argue for the need to grapple productively with the complexities of teaching in the power-laden contexts of schooling. This involves continual reflection on the ways that teaching reinforces structural inequalities. We articulate the notion of historical self to describe noticing as ground in both personal and social histories that are situated in hierarchies of power and dominant ideologies. We draw on data from a three year, multi-site project that engaged teachers, community members, and researchers in co-developing a noticing for re-humanising framework. Through the narrative of Shannon, a project participant-researcher, we illuminate as part of the historical self: (1) the interconnectedness of both personal and social histories in and through moment-to-moment interactions and their relation to what and how we notice; (2) the vulnerability embedded in rupturing embedded assumptions in these histories, and (3) the importance of understanding what we do not notice, as tied to our privilege.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• re-humanising education
• history
• vulnerability
• teacher noticing
• non-linear learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation [1661164].