Managing risk in complex adult professional learning: the facilitator’s role

Ince, Amanda

doi:10.1080/19415257.2016.1164743

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…As on‐the‐ground respondents to complex systems and relationships, facilitators are best poised to transform the status quo through their skilled understanding of highly specific contexts (Poekert, 2011). Their ability to do so is dependent on their ability to read and respond to social interactions, including the risks teachers face through their participation in professional learning (Ince, 2017). Thus, the absence of facilitator voices in this research is notable (Haneda, Sherman, Nebus Bose, & Teemant, 2019; Krell & Dana, 2012).…”

Section: Facilitators and Teachers’ Professional Literacy Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation Literacy: Circulating Power in Professional Learning Conversations With Teacher Colleagues

Lillge¹

2020

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

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The author describes how and why a team of literacy leaders fruitfully studied their own efforts to address the challenges they faced in supporting teacher colleagues’ learning and teaching. Actively resisting facilitation models that privilege facilitators’ power to fix colleagues’ dilemmas and consistent with their belief that professional learning is socially constructed, the facilitators adopted a view of power as a resource that, when circulated, offers people opportunities to be who they wish, and be seen as knowledgeable without challenge. To explore ways of circulating power, the facilitators studied transcripts of their interactions with colleagues. Through co‐analysis of their transcripts, the team identified five discursive strategies supporting circulation of power: identifying sticking points, listening, posing clarifying questions, reframing the challenge, and soliciting feedback. The facilitators’ efforts to circulate power cultivated generative social and discursive spaces, which afforded their colleagues opportunities to negotiate self‐identified dilemmas to advocate for themselves and their students’ literacy learning.

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Section: Facilitators and Teachers’ Professional Literacy Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Facilitation Literacy: Circulating Power in Professional Learning Conversations With Teacher Colleagues

Lillge¹

2020

J Adolescent & Adult Lit

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“…Facilitation knowledge and skills are the 'second order' (Murray & Male, 2005) strategies used to organise the learning of a group of teachers. These encapsulate the ways in which professional development is different from teaching, including the ability to shift between multiple roles (Lange & Meaney, 2013), to model practice explicitly (Borko, et al, 2014), support teacher reflection (Solomon & Tresman, 1999), elicit prior experience from the teachers (Ince, 2016), and, as identified by one of the co-trainers in this study, to extend differing levels of freedom to teachers compared to students in the classroom.…”

Section: Facilitation Knowledge and Skillsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building capacity for professional development: the development of teachers as facilitators in Ghana

Perry

Bevins

2018

Professional Development in Education

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In low and middle income countries, cascade models of teacher professional development are often used as routes to educational reform. In these models, external agents deliver professional development which is then disseminated by in-country facilitators. However, little is known about how to support facilitators of professional development, particularly in low and middle income countries. In this study, we report on a model of capacity building for professional development in Ghana. In the context of a large-scale programme of science teacher professional development, a group of Ghanaian teachers gradually assumed responsibility for professional development facilitation, working alongside experienced facilitators from the UK. Using interviews focussed on a storyline technique, we explore the experiences of the Ghanaian teachers as they reflected on their roles. We found the teachers' epistemological beliefs about teaching were coherent with those of the programme and suggest that this may be an important factor in the success of cascade models of professional development. The teachers gained self-confidence and improved their knowledge and skills of teaching and of professional development facilitation. We propose that this is useful learning for all facilitators and that the model described here is one which is potentially useful for capacity building in other contexts.

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“…Professional development sits at the heart of improving teachers' skills, knowledge and practice (Darling-Hammond 2017), and so professional development facilitators (PDFs), those practitioners who lead, plan and deliver teacher professional development activities such as workshops, programmes and courses, play a key role in the education system (Elliott et al 2009, van Driel et al 2012, Margolis 2012, Ince 2017, MacPhail et al 2019. However, the role of PDFs has been paid relatively little attention so far (Kennedy 2016, Whitworth et al 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The practices of professional development facilitators

Perry

Booth

2021

Professional Development in Education

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Research into schoolteachers' professional development often focuses on its subject and pedagogical content, delivery model and mechanisms for and evaluation of professional learning. However, the role of the professional development facilitators who lead, plan and deliver professional development activities is under-researched and their importance is therefore undervalued. To address this, there is a need for a greater understanding of how professional development facilitators learn, practice and develop their roles. This study contributes to the evidence base about professional development facilitators through a small-scale study of the facilitators of a teacher professional development programme in the Further Education and Skills sector in England. Using qualitative data drawn from facilitators and participants we identify three areas of practice used by the facilitators: content, pedagogy and embodiment. We describe the facilitators' choices in relation to these practices and how these choices interact, identifying modelling as an important practice where content and pedagogy overlap. We show how facilitators' choices were supported by previous experience, ongoing learning and feedback from participants. Drawing on this evidence we suggest ways in which professional development facilitators might be supported in their own professional learning by exploring and improving their knowledge and understanding of the three areas of practice.

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Managing risk in complex adult professional learning: the facilitator’s role

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Facilitation Literacy: Circulating Power in Professional Learning Conversations With Teacher Colleagues

Facilitation Literacy: Circulating Power in Professional Learning Conversations With Teacher Colleagues

Building capacity for professional development: the development of teachers as facilitators in Ghana

The practices of professional development facilitators

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