Critical Friendship, Collaboration and Trust as a Basis for Self-Determined Professional Development: A case of science teaching

Abstract

This paper describes the development of curriculum design expertise from the perspective of a teacher reflecting on a science lesson. His involvement in the research process resulted in a selfdetermined professional development strategy. The description comes from data collected through lesson observations and an in-depth stimulated recall discussion to probe and uncover the teacher's understanding of the importance of the curriculum design principles related to his lesson. These data are supplemented with lessons plans studied over several months. Views expressed indicate that the professional development of the teacher was grounded in trust and trust-building that took time. The views also, suggest, amongst other issues, how empowerment evaluation can be used in enabling development in curriculum design.

Clarifying and Capturing “Trust” in Relation to Science Education: Dimensions of Trustworthiness within Schools and Associations with Equitable Student Achievement

“…Recent science education research supports these findings while reinforcing the importance of interpersonal relationships within schools, even if issues of trust have not been an explicit focus of the research. For example, as a field we recognize the value of developing productive teacher work environments and social structures that facilitate the implementation of school science programs (Carlone & Webb, ; Chen, Lin, Wang, Lin, & Kao, ; Diaconu, Radigan, Suskavcevic, & Nichol, ; Ramnarain & Modiba, ; Richmond & Manokore, ; Tytler, Symington, Darby, Malcolm, & Kirkwood, ). Trustworthiness has also been used to examine public views of science and scientists (Nadelson et al., ).…”

The Inclusion of a Student Voice in Teacher Professional Learning to Create Relevance in Science Education

“…Each steering group had the capacity to take decisions and support further efforts. Its members were also regularly informed about situations in the organization they were responsible for which fosters responsibility, rather than dependency (Ramnarian & Mobida, 2013) relations between actors. This is a concrete example of how the concept of boundary spanners can be adapted and treated in a Swedish cultural context.…”

The role of teacher-student relationship on performance in mathematics of the eleventh graders in the Cape Coast metropolis: Critical friendship perspective

“…For example, Gibbs and Angelides (2008) argue that linking the positive notion of friendship with the potentially negative connotation of the term "critique" often poses a contradiction for "Critical Friends". Nevertheless, Ramnarain and Modiba (2013) show that marrying the two concepts is not unreasonable or contradictory. Similarly, the use of the word "contradiction" seems too negative to allow a form of relationship between the two concepts.…”