No abstract

This article draws on interview data across eight months from Senior Teachers [ie experienced teachers who are subject leaders] in Egyptian primary schools, to explore how they described their learning during a professional development Project in which they led gatherings of interested teachers in Teacher Learning Communities. The article explores the hypothesis that an important ingredient for effective teacher professional development is an affirming relationship between the learning-teacher and their coach or peers. Carl Rogers' person-centred theory (1951 [1987], 1967 [1988]) from the psychotherapy context is explored here in an educational context where, as in many countries, hierarchical relationships control how professionals relate to each other and express themselves. The article concludes that an enhanced sense of professional value and authority can result from more mutually respectful relationships and become the bedrock for significant professional development.

This paper explores learning from the perspective of primary pupils in Egypt. The article explores models of learning and teaching and how pupils respond to traditional models and to changes within those. Qualitative data was collected from 57 interviews with 81 primary pupils in Alexandria, Egypt. Our research approach was interpretivist and our method was individual interview and observation. Teachers had introduced for the first time the practice of group and/or pair-work in the English language classroom. Following this change, pupils described their learning as benefiting from: peer support; exercising self-direction; participating more actively; and enjoyment of collaborative work. These findings accord with the research literature on collaborative learning. We conclude that even in traditional sites of learning, children appreciate aspects of collaborative learning.

This paper draws on the views of nearly 400 Year 5 pupils across nine classes in three schools. It explores how they perceived the role of affect in their classroom and how they conceived of their teachers' authority. The paper relates these views to the children's experiences of learning English in government primary schools in Alexandria, Egypt. The traditional role of the teacher in their schooling system was to transmit curriculum knowledge to pupils, whose feelings and social relationships were given little regard. By presenting pupils with sentences to complete, including one which started with 'The teacher who helps children learn best...', our research explored how this traditional approach influenced pupils in their English classroom. We also interviewed 38 pupils to explore their views further and we carried out Group Interviews with the pupils' teachers. We concluded that pupils were acutely aware of how their feelings and their relationship to the teacher influenced their capacity to learn cognitively. Many of them said that they did not respect those teachers who refused to exercise an ethic of care with them. In these cases, they did not see their teachers as authoritative and pupils' learning was impeded.

This article explores teachers' learning from a Vygotskian perspective which emphasises collaborative interaction and self-direction. The article describes case-studies of three Senior Teachers in socio-economically disadvantaged Egyptian primary schools where collaboration and selfdirection were systemically discouraged. It analyses how, through a teacher development Intervention, the teachers learned to use collaborative interaction to support their own learning and felt more creative, authoritative and powerful after being guided to exercise selfdirection.