ABSTRACT

In many parts of the world improving the performance of teachers is a high policy priority, and improving teachers’ learning is seen as a way of achieving this. In this chapter I argue for an approach to improving teachers’ learning that is constructed upon a research-based understanding of how teachers learn. In claiming that teachers’ personal professional development must be taken seriously, I endorse much existing teacher development research. However, that literature has not fully dealt with the significance of everyday working practices for teacher learning. Here I propose a mechanism for taking account of the role of teachers’ dispositions and school and departmental working practices in improving teacher learning, drawing on a longitudinal qualitative research study of secondary school teachers’ learning.1 All names used are pseudonyms.