Habitual practice vs. the struggle for change: can informal teacher learning promote ongoing change to professional practice?

Abstract

In this article the relationship between teacher change and teacher learning is analysed. Data presented here were gathered through self‐study research over a 30‐month period, during which the author, as a teacher‐researcher in Malta, systematically recorded observations and reflections into a reflective journal. This article addresses issues such as: (a) how habitual routines that are technical in nature are formed, and how these tend to distance the practitioner from consciously developing and learning, and subsequently changing and improving professional practice; (b) how uncertainty regarding an innovation in the educational field might induce the need for both change and development; (c) how continuous learning and critically questioning beliefs and assumptions is important for change to occur; (d) how important determination on the practitioner's part is in the fight against the status quo; and (e) how reflective practice can be seen as a corrective to experiential over‐learning.