ABSTRACT
Many arguments have been voiced in favor of establishing teacher–researcher collaborations in the context of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) and curriculum reform. This chapter draws from a longitudinal co-design effort with in-service science teachers, and reports data from the process of co-design, and the classroom implementations of the co-design outcomes, to discuss these as contexts for supporting teachers as “transformative intellectuals.” We view co-design with teachers as a fertile setting for unsettling established educational practices of passive teaching and learning, in support of moving towards critical praxis and a transformative approach to one’s own teaching. This chapter draws from the second cycle of a TPD which included 27 in-service, science education teachers at the elementary, middle, and high school level, working in disciplinary co-design teams, each guided by a university researcher. The co-design teams developed inquiry modules that integrated Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) ideas, which advocate a more dynamic and inclusive relationship between scientific advancements and societal involvement. Through a qualitative analysis of the data, we report on how teachers were able to become intellectual partners in design and discuss the conditions and challenges to teacher learning and professional growth.
