The purpose of this article is to explore the role of the researcher in facilitating collaborative professional development (CPD) projects with teachers in Finland. The article sheds light on the complex role of the researcher promoting professional development in educational sites through action research. The educational sites vary from individual classrooms to small schools and municipalities. The analysis builds on the creation of a communicative space in the form of a Teacher Talk group for researchers engaged in different CPD projects. The creation of sustainable arenas for communication is needed, not only at the educational sites among practitioners, but also among the researchers engaged in different CPD projects. Through our continuous communication and reflections and with help of practice theory we were able to grasp the meanings of the professional development work and our role as researchers at the intersection of action research, university and school. We found the complex researcher role to mainly be that of a negotiator concerning culturaldiscursive, material-economic and socio-political arrangements.

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W orking in a small school threatened with closure creates a certain kind of teacher vulnerability. By analysing one teacher's story, this article contributes to understanding how teachers cope with the external and internal challenges of teaching and leadership in small rural schools. Research about teachers' work in a small village school in Finland, where about 100 schools have been closed each year, explores how discovery of and reflection on the solid moral base of being a teacher may contribute to and promote the teacher's endurance during times of change. A teacher validates pedagogical thinking and practical knowledge into a contextual, temporal and moral interpretive framework. In doing so, a teacher evaluates the choice to remain in the same school for almost all their career and reveals reasons for staying-a topic that is of interest in research about retaining teachers in rural areas.

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