Abstract:
Recent trends in the professional learning and development of teachers are moving
more towards the activation of learning rather than content delivery. Teachers are
expected to take more responsibility for their learning within collaborative
environments. This has implications for the practice and learning of inservice
teacher educators. Evidence-based inquiry into practice (EBIP) is one approach that
is being adopted, which involves evaluation of practice against values, beliefs and
assumptions.
This study investigated the professional learning and development experiences and
perceptions of a group of 10 inservice teacher educators, who participated in the
Inservice Teacher Education Practice (INSTEP) project from 2005 to 2009. INSTEP
was a New Zealand Ministry of Education project designed to investigate and
develop professional learning approaches for inservice teacher educators. In
particular, its focus was on the implementation of collaborative EBIP to improve
practice.
Collective case study and grounded theory methodologies were adopted. Semistructured
interviews were conducted with participants in 2008 and 2010. The
interviews were analysed using inductive content analysis. Theoretical sampling was
applied to identify further participants and document sources such as artefacts,
reports and publications, which were also used to inform the research.
The findings indicate that, while all participants improved practice and gained
knowledge through EBIP, some experienced transformations in their perceptions of
themselves, their practice, and their role as inservice teacher educators. Rigorous
and systematic EBIP was most effective, and only sustained, when it was supported
within formal, informal and social organisational contexts. Such contexts
incorporated collective responsibility for learning. This included negotiation and
development of shared meanings, tools, mechanisms, and frameworks, which
systematised and reified the process of EBIP. This also enabled individual
professional learning goals to be located within an overall infrastructure
incorporating a shared vision, and alignment with strategic priorities and resourcing.
The study suggests that sustainability of change and improvement of practice within
system-wide educational reform is more likely to be achieved by individuals working
coherently within an educational system and organisations that value and adopt an
inquiry approach and nurture collaborative environments. Such environments
provide safety to expose vulnerabilities, and enable opportunities for learning that
minimise the impact of power relations and contestable environments, while offering
challenge, support and diversity of perspectives.
The theoretical framework for EBIP derived from the research, and an integrative
analysis of the literature, identifies three interconnected and interdependent
components linked by a common vision of purpose, and a collective commitment to
learning. The components are: individual learning and transformation; communities
and connectedness; and systematisation and reification.
The study includes recommendations for more research into the contexts and
processes of collaborative models of professional learning, and into the changing
role and professional learning requirements of inservice teacher educators. It also
identifies a need to investigate valid means of judging effectiveness of practice for
inservice teacher educators, since evidence of enhanced student learning is linked
only by a chain of influence to inservice teacher educator practice.
