Opening a door to the learning society through teacher professional development: An examination of the policy and provision of professional development opportunities for second‐level teachers in the republic of Ireland

Halton, Michael J.

doi:10.1080/0332331040230208

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…To conclude this article we wish to consider how our study engages with current government policy and academic literature. While there have been critiques of the prominence of a utilitarian paradigm within education and educational policy (Bolam, 2000;Halton, 2004;Jones and Thomas, 2005;Rooney and McKenna, 2005) our project seeks to shift the focus onto the development of the whole person without a complete rejection or refiguring of this paradigm. Instead, if what has been termed 'self growth' (Smethem and Adey, 2005) or personal development can be shown to impact upon teachers practices in the classroom, pupil attainment and staff retention, its practicality and usefulness can be evinced.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the problems that has been identified is that higher education in England has become subsumed with managerial, corporate and utilitarian discourses that concentrate on targeted 'training and development' rather than a more holistic approach to education (Bolam, 2000;Halton, 2004). Education is addressed in terms of 'training'.…”

Section: Background To the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is subject knowledge the be all and end all? Investigating professional development for science teachers

Woolhouse

Cochrane

2009

Improving Schools

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This article reports on the initial findings of research carried out with a cohort of science teachers engaged in a professional development course at a northwest England university. The aim was to investigate how professional development was perceived by participants and explore the experiences of those who undertook the course. Results suggest that initially a utilitarian discourse which framed professional development as needing to fulfil identified needs, and an alignment of the benefits of undertaking professional development with training for quantifiable career advancement, took precedence over personal growth. However, as the course developed, the teachers began to recognize their integration into a professional learning community, and also saw the course as an opportunity for self-development. We suggest that a utilitarian paradigm can sit alongside a purpose which seeks to develop teachers' self-reflection and personal growth as a route to enrichment of pupil experience rather than focused on producing quantifiable progress in examination results.

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