J.M.H. Swennen

The professional development of teacher educators

Two years ago, at the annual conference of the International Professional Development Association in Belfast, a claim was made by one of us, with a great deal of justification, that there had been very few papers published in the International Professional Development Association journal Professional Development in Education that had focused upon the role, development and professional identity of teacher educators (see: http://www.ipda.org.uk/paper/SwennenKeynote07.ppt). Following some initial inves- tigation, it became evident that this was indeed a relatively neglected area. The profes- sional development focus of the Journal had clearly been upon the teacher, either novice, beginner or more experienced, whilst the teachers of teachers had received comparatively little attention. Therefore, in response to the challenge made at the conference, the Editorial Board of the Journal agreed that we should seek to publish a special issue on the theme of The Professional Development of Teacher Educators.

The power of policy-makers to make the right – or wrong – choices for professional development of teachers (editorial)

Many articles in this issue refer directly or indirectly to government policy as an important influence on education in general, or more specifically on the professional development of educators. From about 1800 (the exact dates differ for each country), when governments took over the responsibility for the quality of education from parishes, town councils, local authorities and head teachers, the influence of governments on education has increased considerably. Governments have both financial and legal powers and use laws, policy documents and financial incentives as instruments to develop teachers in the direction they think is most needed. Educational professionals have to relate to the choices their governments make and accept, adapt or ignore the possibilities governments create for their professional development. In recent decades policy-makers in many European countries favoured a view on professional development in education that is characterized by accountability, standards and assessment (Ball 1998). Researchers often advocate forms of professional development that support teachers’ agency and collaboration among teachers and between teachers and other professional educationalists. We now tend to think that there is a gap between these two views on professional development, but during the nineteenth century teachers were actively involved in the professionalization of their own profession and communities of teachers (although they were never called that) were an important means of educating primary school teachers. In this editorial I want to highlight three periods in Dutch history of professional development of teachers that help us better understand the present, and perhaps even to learn from good practices in the past. The examples may be based on Dutch history, but this history is shared with many European countries and will be recognized by many who work with teachers. During the nineteenth century teachers had two important ways to gain information about new insights into teaching (for more details, see Swennen 2012). The first was individual reading and studying – a form of professional development that is still valid today. Yet in those days, (head) teachers and teacher educators for primary education (next to inspectors and others involved in the improvement of education) contributed substantially to the ever-growing number of books and journals for teachers. In doing so they played an important role in the professionalization of their own profession. The second way of professional development of teachers in the Netherlands in the nineteenth century is one that may surprise present-day educationalists. To improve primary education, the Dutch government in the first half of the nineteenth century initiated so-called teacher’s associations (onderwijzersgezelschappen). The Dutch ‘onderwijzer’ means ‘primary teacher’ and ‘gezelschap’ is best explained Professional Development in Education, 2013 Vol. 39, No. 3, 289–292, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2013.799336

Weaverbirds and Twitter: variety in the landscape of professional learning of educators

I have just returned from a journey to Ethiopia where I visited the 33rd May Annual International Education Conference, traditionally held at Bahir Dar University. The city of Bahir Dar is located approximately 300 km from the capital Addis Ababa and sits conveniently on the beautiful shores of Lake Tana. While you have your morning coffee in the garden of the Tana Hotel you can watch toucans in the trees and weaverbirds making their beautiful nests in the papyrus that grows along the shores in thick bushes. Each evening the cranes and pelicans fly over the lake and you hear the screams of monkeys in the trees. The beauty of Lake Tana is in stark contrast with the poverty and lack of resources of the city of Bahir Dar, Bahir Dar University and its teachers and students. On first sight the ‘lack of everything’ is not obvious. The campus of Bahir Dar University is large and well laid out, with broad tree-lined lanes that are crowded with students who walk to and from class or are on their way to town. They always walk and so do the teachers: there are hardly any bicycles or private cars. When you look more closely, you observe that the students carry no backpacks containing the sort of equipment owned by western students, such as laptops, tablets, phones, books, notebooks and pens. Some students carry a book (not in a bag – too expensive), which they have borrowed from the library, but notebooks and even pens are still scarce and considered a luxury – and not only by the students. The classrooms are sparsely furnished with damaged tables and chairs, never enough for the large amount of students, many of whom sit on floors or stand during the lectures. I know the Faculty of Education of Bahir Dar University quite well as I worked there in 2008, 2010 and 2012 for a large project called EQUIP (Education Quality Improvement Project). The aim of the project was to support Ethiopian universities and university teachers to improve university teaching. The university teachers of the Faculty of Education who participated in this project had to invest much of their own time and I became increasingly aware that this was a large problem for many. University teachers earn just enough to survive on their own, but when they have a family to support (and they always have, as not only their own spouses and children but also members of their extended family rely on them for basic needs and food and shelter) they have to find ways to increase their income. University teachers are therefore obliged to teach summer courses, teach in private schools or run their own private schools. Nevertheless, the teachers I worked with were dedicated to the improvement of the curriculum, their own teaching and the learning of their students. Like the weaverbirds who make their ingenious nests with the material that is available, these teachers invented ways to involve their students in significant learning processes with limited resources. Considering that there was only one computer

Crossing national and cultural borders in professional development research

After being a member of the editorial board for nearly two years it is now my turn to write the editorial. I am the only non-UK member of the editorial board (but by no means an outsider), which gives me the feeling of being connected to two cultural worlds. Some of you may be familiar with the concept of ‘figured worlds’, as used by Dorothy Holland and her colleagues in their book Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds (Holland et al. 1998). This work is not about education as such, but I can highly recommend it to those who want to understand the world of education and the other cultural or figured worlds they live in and, equally importantly, the worlds of others. Figured worlds are not natural worlds, but ‘collectively realized “as if” realms’ (p. 49) that are constructed and reconstructed by the people who participate in these worlds, while simultaneously these figured worlds influence who we are. Education at large is a figured world and so is, for example, teacher education, a class of teachers and students or an editorial board. The position we take in a figured world is defined by various aspects like age, status, gender and experience, but also our nationality, the language we speak or the country that we are born in, to name just a few. The idea of figured worlds helped me to understand the concept of ‘culture’, which is a concept that refers not to practice in (from the point of view of the western world) faraway and exotic countries, but to our personal and professional daily lives. The figured worlds we live in, and our position in them, define the perspective we use to view and understand the figured worlds we live in and others that we just know. It is my perspective as a Dutch educator and researcher that I use to reflect on this issue of Professional Development in Education. Depending on what you define as different countries, the articles in this issue originate from six or seven different countries: Cayman Islands, Pakistan, St KittsNevis, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom (or England and Scotland), and the United States. As I am only superficially acquainted with British history, the Cayman Islands were for me the faraway and exotic culture I referred to earlier. It was only when Marc Minott, one of the authors in this issue who is from the Cayman Islands, patiently pointed out to me that English was the main language of the Cayman Islands and that their educational system is based on that in the United Kingdom that I realised there was a close connection not only between this country and the United Kingdom, but also with others who are represented in this issue, like Australia or even, although more remote in time, Pakistan. I also realised that scholars of more remote countries may have, through a common history, more in common when it comes to factors like language, the school system or academic traditions than those who are closer to each other geographically (whether or not people like this is not the issue here). Professional Development in Education Vol. 37, No. 4, September 2011, 477–481