Teacher education is in a state of change. There is a new focus on professional competence, including the competence for further development and learning, conceived of as workplace learning. Teacher shortages put pressure on the development of alternative routes to teaching. The arrival of prospective teachers with experience and qualifications in other areas than education requires adaptive programs, with a greater emphasis on professional learning in school. It is argued that promoting professional workplace learning asks for a conceptual clarification, based on new theory of learning and concepts of professionalism. A definition of professional learning is proposed. Some examples of new practice in teacher education are discussed.
Background: In the Netherlands, most of the academic curricula for teacher training in religious education (RE) focus on shortfalls of students, like a lack of knowledge about the plurality of worldviews and the diversity in interpretations of the Christian tradition. In our research project, the focus is not on the students, but on the university professors and lecturers who teach the subject of RE: professors and lecturers who train and educate students to teach RE. Aim: The main aim of the project was to gain a better insight into the inherent complexity of the professionalism of academics, that is, their own positionality in the plurality of the Roman Catholic traditions they adhere to in relation to their capabilities and commitment to the current curriculum – the ‘old’ one – and the new curriculum to be developed, in the context of the Dutch plural society. Setting: Respondents in this research were university professors and lecturers of the Teacher Training Institute of Tilburg University, located at Utrecht, the Netherlands. Methods: For this investigation, we used a research instrument based on the dialogical self theory and its self confrontation method for organisations to gain insight into professionals’ own and their colleagues’ positionality regarding teaching RE. Results: Preliminary results show that the self confrontation method for organisations has shown itself to be a challenging instrument to invite academics involved in the process of data construction and data analysis. Conclusion: Based on these results, we recommend to include the research population in a validation process to increase the sustainability of the results and to maximise engagement in the implementation phase of the new curriculum.
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Het begrip ‘teacher leader’ duikt steeds vaker op, in publicaties, masteropleidingen en (boven)bestuurlijke professionaliseringstrajecten. Het verwijst naar leraren die rollen op zich nemen die de eigen lespraktijk overstijgen en een bijdrage leveren aan onderwijsontwikkeling en onderwijskwaliteit. Die rollen bieden steeds meer leraren een aantrekkelijke carrièremogelijkheid. Teacher leadership zou je kunnen vertalen als leiderschap van leraren, maar een echt mooi Nederlands equivalent voor teacher leader is er niet, vandaar dat ik de Engelse term aanhoud. In dit hoofdstuk is de kernvraag hoe leraren zich kunnen ontwikkelen tot teacher leader. Ik maak daarbij een onderscheid tussen formeel en informeel en tussenindividueel en collectief leiderschap van leraren. In het laatste geval is leiderschap een vanzelfsprekende opdracht voor iedere leraar. Ik ga kort in opde benodigde kwaliteiten voor teacher leaders en de voorwaarden die binnen de school aanwezig moeten zijn. Daarmee wordt duidelijk wat leraren die ditloopbaantraject ambiëren, nodig hebben.
