2025/26 Project Stream 1 - Transformative Professional Learning
Team
Dr Ismail Özgür Zembat (lead)
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Brianna L. Kennedy
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Lauren Boath
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Kat Brack
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Utkun Aydin
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Abstract
This research stream aimed to investigate how transformative professional learning serves as a catalyst for change across multiple levels, especially for teachers, schools, and education systems. It examined the extent to which professional learning fosters deep shifts in beliefs, practices, and identities, and explores the dynamics that enable these changes to scale and influence organisational culture and systemic reform. The stream considered how top-down policy structures and bottom-up initiatives interact to create conditions for sustainable transformation.
During 2025–26, this stream supported Centre-wide conversations about how we conceptualise transformative professional learning and its relationship to transformative change in schools.
Keywords
transformative professional learning; transformative teaching and learning; transformative change in schools and society; social justice