thesisthoughts

Bulfin and Mathews wrote this article as early career teachers, it deals with the production of professional learning and teacher identity.

The authors point out that “it is easy to forget that teachers are learners and should in fact understand “learning” better than most…Perhaps while knowing a lot about “learning”and what can help it along, we forget to hold ourselves up to the mirror and ask the same questions” (p. 48).

The authors ask the important question:

“How might we, as beginning teachers, create a physical and metaphorical “discursive space” in a meaningful way when our work and teaching conditions often appear pre-determined, inflexible and isolating?” (p. 49).

In my opinion, this question is just as relevant and crucial for experienced teachers.

I applaud Bulfin and Mathews and  admire the way they took responsibility for their own professional learning.

“we have undertaken a collaborative and dialogic approach to our own professional learning. We have…actively listened, talked, read, written and theorised our experiences, we have come to know and see them differently and more powerfully” (p. 49).

Bulfin and Mathews felt that as early career teachers it was problematic to see themselves as legitimate creators of professional educational knowledge. I believe that many experienced teachers (if not the majority), feel the same way.

The authors believe that a major barrier is that “teacher learning is generally conceptualised as an individual and psychological process only” and they present the recent literature which disagrees and encourages teacher learning to be dialogic in nature.

“There is plenty of talk that goes on inside schools, but there are also many barriers that do not encourage the kind of sustained intellectual conversations we believe are important for the professional development of teachers” (p. 51).

In her personal journal, Mathews wrote:

“It seems people already know and they want to tell me the answer rather than talk about the possibilities” (p. 52). This extremely important statement, which may not be immediately relevant to my thesis but is central to my work with teachers (beginning and experienced). I want to try to explore this feeling (which I know reflects the reality) with my colleagues in a written conversation…you have to start somewhere. Here is an example where beginning teachers can actually stimulate the professional learning of experienced educators.

What did the authors achieve in their collaborative dialogic learning?

• “we stretched the boundaries of our understanding, challenging each other to look further than we could see alone” (p. 52).
• “we came to better understand the problems we encountered” (p. 53).

 Bulfin, S., & Mathews, K. (2003). Reframing beginning teachers as knowledge producers: Learning to teach and transgress. English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 2(3), 47-58. Retrieved from http://education.waikato.ac.nz/research/files/etpc/files/2003v2n3art4.pdf

In this article which is directed at librarians, the author argues that writing for publication in professional journals is an effective form of PD.

An important claim presented here is that although learning to reflect on one’s practice is not simple, it can be learned.

“…writing can become a creative dialogue with oneself, drawing out the better professional within – and by doing so one can become a true ‘reflective practitioner’ ” (p. 5).

The author continues to describe writing as a means of creating a dialogue with peers and “connecting and interacting with the profession at large” (p. 6).

Joint admits that in writing for publication you are presenting your practice for the inspection by others and that this in itself stimulates the writer to produce higher quality work.

Joint, N. (2006). Enhancing professional development by writing for publication in library and information science. Library Review, 55(1), 5-7. Retrieved from www.emeraldinsight.com