ABSTRACT
Northern Ireland is a devolved administration of the United Kingdom and its Department of Education (DE) has the responsibility of education and teachers in Northern Ireland. The development of the teaching profession, and teachers’ professional learning, has been impacted by its unique political context, the legacy of the circumstances in which the Northern Ireland state was established and the consequences of the Good Friday Agreement. Teacher learning has not only been affected by the vagaries of devolved government but by a series of reviews of education with limited outcomes. Given the complexities of change in education in Northern Ireland, one might presume a stalemate in teacher learning; however, opportunities remain for teachers to engage with career development and professional learning. The cross-border dimension of this reveals the opportunities that exist beyond jurisdictional boundaries, questioning sites of professional learning in the context of not just Northern Ireland and Ireland but also continental Europe.
