Handbook of Teacher Education and Professional Learning for Educational Change
Team
Professor Aileen Kennedy (Lead)
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Professor Brianna L. Kennedy
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Dr Ismail Özgür Zembat
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Professor Carol Campbell
Moray House School of Education and Sport
University of Edinburgh
Kat Brack
CenTCS
University of Glasgow
Abstract
Teacher education and professional learning are not simply technical training processes but exist within complex contexts that are influenced by a range of historical, societal and political factors. Thus, teacher learning for educational change implies an underpinning values-base that needs to be made explicit. The conceptual framing for this handbook therefore adopts a transformative orientation to teacher learning, whereby professional learning is seen as learning that ‘transforms problematic frames of reference – sets of fixed assumptions and expectations (habits of mind, meaning perspectives, mindsets) – to make them more inclusive, discriminating, open, reflective, and emotionally able to change’ (Mezirow, 2003, p. 58). Taken holistically, the handbook will provide wide-ranging and authoritative commentary on how to develop the professionals who work in school education to bring about educational changes that benefit students’ learning and equity in ways that also attend to the significant environmental and ethical challenges facing the world today.
Keywords
transformative professional learning; educational change; cross-national contexts