This article explores which tensions teachers experience during one year of participation in a professional learning community (PLC). Tensions are more or less temporal negative feelings of stress, loss of self-efficacy or anxiety caused by conflicting personal features and workplace affordances. A qualitative study including two semi-structured interviews with 18 teachers participating for one year in a PLC revealed that 15 out of 18 teachers experience one or more tensions. More specifically, eight different tensions are identified, in which tensions concerning high work pressure and a lack of shared learning are most commonly reported. The results further indicate temporal, contextual and personal nature of tensions. It is concluded that tensions are often caused by negatively perceived learning cultures in schools.

Teacher leadership is often connected to experienced teachers as it is assumed that a certain level of knowledge and experience is needed. Informal teacher leadership, however, can also be expected from beginning teachers. The aim of this study is to study beginning teachers' opportunities for enacting leadership. Twelve pairs, consisting of one school management staff member (e.g. principal, administrators, head of departments) and one beginning teacher, were interviewed. For the analyses, three codes describing levels of leadership (witness, participation, ownership) were used to label the situations reported by the novices and staff members in which they experienced and observed leadership. The findings of this study show that it is possible for beginning teachers to enact leadership roles. They do, however, need to develop knowledge and skills for this purpose. To optimise these leadership competencies, teacher education programmes could consider including this more explicitly in their curriculum. ARTICLE HISTORY

and Norway. It presents a study of the teachers' perceptions of and responses to the diversity within their classes, in relation to their professional role and their personal and professional biographies. The study employed biographical research methods and 36 teachers were interviewed. Key findings were that, in every country, there was a clear relationship between individual teachers' personal biographies and how they responded to religious and/or cultural diversity and common cross-national strategies for dealing with these aspects of diversity. However, socio-cultural factors within each country (including dominant views of the relationship between religion and education) affected the ways in which the teachers perceived the diversity within their classes and there were national differences in how teachers prioritised aspects of diversity. The study concludes that if teachers of religion are to extend the range of their responses to classroom diversity, they would benefit from opportunities to reflect on the relationship between their perceptions of and responses to religious and cultural diversity, their personal biographies, and national requirements and expectations related to their professional role.

Novice-expert interaction plays an important role in teacher professional development for Chinese vocational education and training (VET). Both Chinese and international research shows that expert-teachers' support is associated with the improvement of novice-teachers' teaching. However, insights into how exactly novice teachers learn with the help of expert teachers are lacking. The learning processes of four novice VET teachers were explored in the context of a professional development project. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews with novice teachers and recordings of novice-expert interactions. A learning model was constructed based on the interconnected model of professional growth. The results showed that novice teachers internalised comments from expert teachers by active reflection and practice. Moreover, this study suggests that teachers' professional development is a complicated long-term process, and that during their development the support from expert teachers is an important external source for novice-teachers. Expert-teachers' support not only provides feedback and suggestions for alternative teaching methods, but also encourages and maintains novice-teachers' learning. The results are discussed in relation to the cultural (Chinese) and educational context (VET)