Teacher Agency in Professional Learning ( EDPD713)
Focus and purpose of the module
a. The module
aims to introduce students to the critical concept of teacher professional learning and allow students to reflectively
examine teacher agency in professional
learning.
b. The module
aims to introduce students to creative and participatory approaches to
exploring and facilitating teacher professional learning.
c. The module
aims to support some foundational academic writing elements, including taking a
process approach to writing, analysing assignment instructions, planning and
structuring paragraphs, writing introductions and conclusions, and using the
prescribed referencing style for essential in-text citations and references.
Some key questions we will consider in this
module are:
Ø What is teacher professional learning?
Ø What is teacher agency?
Ø How does teacher agency in professional
learning happen?
Ø Why does teacher agency in professional
learning matter?
What is teacher professional
learning?
The word development …. evokes images of what someone does to
someone else: develop them. In education, professional development has, in
fact, often been what someone does to others. The back-to-school speaker holds
forth in order to motivate the teaching staff for the coming year. The
specialist arrives from the capital to increase teachers’ knowledge of state
standards. The university professor advances the careers of educators through
courses that offer credits to move them up on the salary scale.
Such development activities as these
(and even some training activities) are neither bad nor wrong. In some cases
they are vital to professional and organizational growth. But they are not
sufficient. If all educators needed to do was develop (i.e., grow, expand,
advance, progress, mature, enlarge, or improve), perhaps development would be
enough. But educators often find that more and better are not enough. They find
they often need to change what they do, on a daily or sometimes hourly basis,
as they respond to the needs of the learners they serve. Doing this takes
learning.
….
It is clearer today than ever that
educators need to learn, and that’s why professional learning has
replaced professional development. Developing is not enough. Educators
must be knowledgeable and wise. They must know enough in order to change. They
must change in order to get different results. They must become learners, and
they must be self-developing. (Easton, 2008, pp. 755-756)
Easton,
L. B. (2008). From professional development to professional learning. Phi
Delta Kappan, 89(10), 755-761. https://doi.org/10.1177/003172170808901014
What is teacher agency?
In the context of
professional learning, teacher agency is the capacity of teachers to act
purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and
contribute to the growth of their colleagues. Rather than responding passively
to learning opportunities, teachers who have agency are aware of their part in
their professional growth and make learning choices to achieve their goals. (Calvert,
2016, p. 52)
Calvert, L. (2016).
The power of teacher agency. The Learning
Professional, 37(2), 51-56.
Key concepts that we will explore will include:
Ø teacher professional learning
Ø teacher agency
Ø memory-work
Ø social networking
Ø professional learning networks
