Bringing being into professional development: a qualitative investigation into teachers’ struggles moving beyond an epistemological framing of teaching and learning

ABSTRACT

The continued standardisation of publicly funded early education programmes has led to teacher educators and researchers focusing in on what works in preparing teachers and their students to succeed in these environments. Such a focus prioritises an epistemological understanding of teaching and learning and leads to investigations examining whether professional development programmes impact participants’ ways of knowing. Many within teacher education question this outcomes-based focus on teaching and learning and are seeking alternative forms of professional development. The programme examined in this article took up this call by implementing an ontological conception of professional development that re-centers the learning process through the experiences of teachers in their classrooms. Specifically, it assisted a collection of early educators in enacting new ways of professional being that attended to children’s worlds. Studying their experiences provides insight into the opportunities and challenges that exist for those who seek to transform the teacher education process.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional development
• early childhood
• ontology
• culturally relevant teaching
• qualitative

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Christopher P. Brown is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in Early Childhood Education and a Fellow in the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professorship in Early Childhood Education. His research centers on how early childhood education stakeholders across a range of political and educational contexts respond to policymakers’ high-stakes standardsbased accountability reforms. Such work has led to empirical, theoretical, and practitioner-oriented publications on such topics as: high-stakes standards-based accountability reform in early childhood, early learning standards, pre-kindergarten assessment, pre-kindergarten alignment with elementary school, school readiness, culturally relevant teaching, kindergarten within a standardized education system, neoliberal reform, teacher education, and professional development.

Natalie Babiak Weber is a doctoral student in Educational Leadership, P-12 at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor. She serves as the Director of Federal Programs at Taylor ISD in Taylor, Texas. Research interests include professional development and job embedded learning for teachers and administrators in the areas of literacy, early childhood, and language learning.