Deliberative professional development communities as sites for teacher learning.

Abstract

New visions of the educated student are leading to new and greater demands upon teachers' knowledge, skill and perception. At the same time research that has examined opportunities for teacher learning has roundly criticized prevailing approaches to professional development and is just beginning to understand more contemporary approaches. The purpose of this study is to develop theoretical and practical insights into contemporary approaches to the professional development of teachers. The study begins with the development of a theoretical construct termed Deliberative Professional Development Communities (DPDC) crafted from learning theory and research on teacher learning in order to understand the content and processes at work in settings of teacher learning. Underpinned by this framework, the study utilizes tools from conversation analysis to examine the social dimensions of learning in a deliberative community of teachers known as the Teacher Reflection Group. Next, the tools of interactional ethnography are applied to understand the role of professional knowledge and the interplay of experience in multiple contexts in the development of an individual teacher within the Teacher Reflection Group. The findings of this study center on a three-part conception of professional knowledge---personal, local, and public knowledge of teaching---that is drawn upon in deliberative communities of teacher learning. The depth, balance and scrutiny that characterize uses of personal, local, and public sources of knowledge in teacher learning approaches are found to impact opportunities of both individual teachers and communities of teachers to develop as true members of a profession. Furthermore, contemporary approaches to professional learning can be characterized as facilitating teacher development by supporting the lamination of ideas garnered through participation in personal, local, and public contexts of learning.