A narrative account of a teacher community

Abstract

This narrative account draws on dialogic approaches to education to critically reflect on teachers’ expressed pedagogic thinking in community. The context for the study is a teacher community in Central Finland comprising teachers from pre-primary to upper secondary contexts. The shared interest of the community is in the foreign-language mediation of education. The data were collected over a period of one and a half years and primarily consisted of teacher-produced notes from community sessions. These data were thematically analysed using a theory-driven approach. The key findings underline the value of pedagogic relationships between teacher-colleagues to support enriched critical understanding of pedagogy. This research suggests the importance of mutual pedagogic relationships to support teacher development.

Keywords:

• narrative account
• teacher development
• dialogic theory
• thematic analysis
• pedagogic relationship between teachers

Acknowledgements

My grateful thanks to the teacher-participants.

Notes

1. This was the CLIL Fusion Conference held in Tallinn, October 2008.