‘Without stones there is no arch’: a study of professional development of teacher educators as a team

Abstract

In this work we study the meaning of professional development as a participative process within a community of practice. In this collaborative narrative self‐study we look at the development of ourselves as a professional group working together in an intensive program. The study is based on personal career stories, each told by its author, but once told becoming a chapter in the group’s story, to be further analyzed and interpreted by its members. This process revealed four themes that contribute to professional learning experiences constructed within the context of being in the team: group diversity, interwoven work, the novice stance and collaborative research. In this paper we discuss our emerging understanding of the significance of the collaborative engagement of teacher educators for the generation of a theory of practice and suggest situating this understanding within a broader ecological perspective using the metaphor of the ‘edge’, a fertile ground for sustainable change and development.

Notes

¹With a sense of great loss, we dedicate this article to the memory of our friend and colleague, Marga Simca, who passed away on December 7, 2009.