ABSTRACT
The use of teachers’ journals in professional development is widespread and varied. The journals can be used for reflection, or introspection and for recording events and feelings. The journals may be written solely with the author in mind, or alternatively for a wider professional audience, possibly for colleagues, a tutor, or an assessor in courses in higher education contexts. Journals are often viewed as autobiographical writing but professional journals differ in focus and in substance from personal diaries because of the different contexts in which they are being used, which in this chapter is the professional development of teachers and other associated educational professionals through higher education. Within a specific professional context i.e., action research based school development, the journal writing focuses upon an ‘issue’ or ‘concern’ under investigation in the local context of the school or local authority, or in the wider context nationally or internationally. The journal is used deliberately to foster in teachers a greater self-awareness, greater deliberation, and professional reflection. The journal when used by teachers on in-service courses which encourage change in practice, enables teachers to perceive their views of the situation in both a retrospective and prospective manner. The professionals can record their views of the concrete reality in the present, their significance in relation to past events and their implications for future planning. Then later, after their engagement in action to improve the professional situation, they can reflect on earlier writing and attempt to discover their own pre-suppositions and inherent expectations and assumptions about the situation. The journal forms a basis for self-reflection; it also allows the professionals to be self-indulgent, to express themselves freely on paper and thus create a permanent record of their professional endeavours.
