Is it professional development, or professional learning? Should it be continuous, continued, or continuing? And if it is career-long should we hyphenate, or not? This is a crucial debate that will keep many teachers awake at night. Ok, maybe not.
That said, terminology might matter more than we realise as it can carry hidden meaning and might impact on people in more ways than we think. I am particularity interested in informal (oh no, another term here to debate…) teacher professional learning or development. Whilst researching this area I have called it grassroots, I’ve called it DIY, I’ve called it teacher-initiated or teacher-led, and for a broad catch all term I’ve called it informal PD. Even as I type now I am wondering if bottom-up teacher development might be more suitable.
Why does this matter? Well most of the time I don’t think it does. I often suggest that it is the actions that mattered, and academia can get bogged down in defining terms. But then I was presenting on this topic at a CollevtivEd event and the label grassroots was discussed. I hadn’t considered this before, but it was suggested that it can be used politically, supporting a particular organisation by giving credibility, as it represents ‘real’ teachers. In turn this allows a certain agenda to be encouraged. The other issue is that people can become partisan about the name or definition, and then become defensive of it. On its own that isn’t a problem, but if it results in people becoming disillusioned, or not engaging at all, then that’s an issue. If a sense of negativity builds then suddenly informal PD starts to seem more like formal CPD, and as we know that has not always been received positively by those in teaching.
I think, as a result of this, I’ll continue to use terms interchangeably but also stop before I do, and if I can try and make sure that people share the meaning. I’ll also carefully check myself, and others, for any agenda. I also think we can consider what works in PD, formal or otherwise, and another idea discussed at the CollectivED event was Collaborative Professionalism. This is something that educators and teachers, including myself, could learn more about although the challenge may be to really reflect deeply on what it means to truly collaborate. This might not be easy in a profession, and society, where the desire to push for personal gain, whilst suggesting differently is more common than we realise.
Currently the experiences of engaging in this form of PD (especially #BrewEd, #TeachMeet and #EdCamps) are being researched by Hannah Robertson at the University of Dundee, for an MA research project. The results of this are likely to shed more light on this topic, and in the process help us work toward more of a share understanding. Once these are available I’ll share them, but I’ll also be conscious of how I refer to this important activity, that ultimately helps teachers to teach.
Education, environment & equality 