Primary science teachers’ narratives about significant colleagues in light of collective PCK

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to bring the voices of teachers to the foreground and provide insight into the collective aspects of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development in primary schools, as perceived by science and technology teachers themselves. Through narrative inquiry in a retrospective and situated perspective, the narratives of the teachers are analysed, and findings are discussed with regard to the concept of significant colleagues and the two recent consensus models of PCK. The findings reveal teacher narratives concerning the influence of not only local collective structures and significant colleagues around perceived PCK development but also collective aspects of PCK, which provide a practice embedded perspective on its development through collegial structures.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher knowledge
• pedagogical content knowledge
• professional development

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).