ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the distinct routes through which teachers become inspired and inspiring professionals, offering optimism as well as recognition of the current barriers to change. It describes how the Chartered College of Teaching can support the competence, agency and relatedness of teachers. The book focuses on learning as professional inquiry and an example in which expertise in practising dialogic pedagogy was developed through one teacher’s account. It considers how a mentoring and coaching community can best affirm and support a teacher’s ongoing professional learning. The book focuses specifically on how teachers’ sense of their own agency can enrich community, leading to the creative learning of school communities. It explores the central issue of teacher well-being. The book discusses how teachers can be supported to help children arrive at a love of reading for pleasure.
