Meaningful time for professional growth or a waste of time? A study in five countries on teachers’ experiences within master’s dissertation/thesis work

ABSTRACT

The relationship between master’s thesis work and teachers’ professional development has rarely been explored empirically, yet. Drawing upon a larger study, this paper investigates how teachers who were studying for or who have recently graduated from Master of Education programmes offered in five countries – Poland, Portugal, England, Latvia, Romania – perceive the usefulness of dissertation/thesis work for their professional development and how they attempt to use their MA research results in their (future) teaching practice. Results suggest that although most respondents recognized their MA dissertation/thesis work as having a positive impact on their professional development by enhancing their professionalism, personal development and growth, and understanding the relationship between research and practice, they were less confident about the use of MA research findings in their (future) workplaces. These results are discussed in the context of current challenges regarding master’s level education for teachers, national governments’ educational policies, and the relationship between research, teachers’ practices and professional development.

KEYWORDS:

• Dissertation/thesis work
• master’s studies
• (student) teacher research
• teacher professional development
• research-practice relationship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. We decided to use both terms put together, because in Portugal this document is called a ‘dissertation’, while in Poland, Romania, Latvia the term ‘thesis’ is more widely used and in England the two terms are synonymous.

2. Since 2019, according to the regulation of Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2018), all individuals who would like to work in pre-school and early school education should attend long-cycle master’s studies.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marta Kowalczuk-Walędziak

Marta Kowalczuk-Walędziak (Ph.D.) is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology, University of Bialystok, Poland. Her research interests include the policy and practice of teacher education and development, practitioner research and research utilization.

Amélia Lopes

Amélia Lopes is Full Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences of the University of Porto, Portugal. Her primary interest is teacher education. She is also widely involved in researching teaching and learning in higher education, doctoral education, professional development, communication and human relationship, diversity and professional identity formation.

James Underwood

James Underwood (Ph.D.) is a Principal Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Humanities at the University of Northampton, UK. His research interests include: the nature of professional communities, non-positional leadership, using practitioner research and the arts to achieve change in schools and communities, methodologies for teacher research, and teaching approaches in higher education among others.

Linda Daniela

Linda Daniela is Full Professor and senior researcher, Chair of the Council for PhD Defence in Pedagogy, Head of the Scientific Institute of Pedagogy at the University of Latvia; Expert in Education at the Council of Sciences of the Republic of Latvia. Her expertise spans a range of fields: smart pedagogy, virtual education, smart education, digital learning materials, educational technologies for learning, educational robotics, educational processes and solutions for reducing social exclusion from educational processes, behavioral problems.

Otilia Clipa

Otilia Clipa (Ph.D.) is an associate professor at the Faculty of Education of the ‘Stefan cel Mare’ University of Suceava, Romania. Her areas of interest include: preschool and primary education, assessment in education, teacher education and didactics for university teachers.