ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors discuss how teachers learn across a professional lifespan. they begin this chapter by suggesting that there is a difference between learning to teach and learning to become a teacher; that is, the former has more to do with providing instruction while the latter concerns the ways teachers think about, reflect on, and come to construct themselves as teachers. As such, we argue that new teachers need to find ways to take more control of their own professional development, especially given the unsettling statistics on new teacher attrition. Tracing the engaged professional development of two veteran teachers, the authors describe examples of how taking an inquiry or dialogical stance on practice can help new teachers to learn from students and participate in communities of like-minded colleagues. They look at how teacher research communities help new and experienced teachers unpack unsettling moments in their practices and continue to learn over their many years in the classroom.
