Professional learning as ‘diffractive’ practice: rhizomatic peer coaching

Abstract

Acknowledging an abundance of technicist models for teacher continuing professional development (CPD), the authors draw from Deleuzoguattarian theory to frame peer coaching as rhizomatic practice. Rhizome theory enables engagement with the creative breaks and departures in peer coaching assemblages. Agentic and innovative teacher learning can occur when teachers can take lines of flight to think differently about their teaching practices. Deleuzoguattarian notions of rupturous lines signal teacher-generated possibilities for new initiatives. Located in an Aotearoa/New Zealand facilitated inquiry CPD context, the article explores how nine teachers engaged in a formal process of collaborative dialogue. A rhizomatic approach to dialogue encompasses a dynamic view of teacher learning. Openness to emergence can enable educators to theorise pedagogy creatively to potentiate a multiplicity of pathways forward.

Applying Galperin model to teacher professional development: A qualitative case study of a peer coaching program

“…the Galperin model, as a framework through which the peer coaching program was implemented and analyzed could add to the rich literature of peer coaching programs that employed various, albeit not Galperin, frameworks to analyze a peer coaching program. Among these frameworks, one can call activity theoretic perspective (Lofthouse & Leat, 2013), community of practice perspective (Kensington-Miller, 2018), sociocultural perspective (Kobayashi, 2003), ecological perspective (Kamali & Nazari, 2023) and poststructuralist perspective (Charteris & Smardon, 2016). The significance of the proposed model is in applying psychological perspectives such as the mental stage of the spiral model along with the social aspect of the model e.g., its verbal stage, to an educational PD tool called peer coaching.…”

Visualising the pedagogic frailty model as a frame for the scholarship of teaching and learning

“…To explore a more nuanced acceptance of the complexity of teaching in this personalised context, the concept of the "rhizome" developed by Deleuze and Guattari (2004) has been considered for its utility in higher education by various authors (Gale, 2007;Grellier, 2013;Barnett and Guzmán-Valenzuela, 2017;Charteris and Smardon, 2016). Taken from the botanical analogy of the underground stem such as that found in the ginger plant, the application of the "rhizome" in education refers to systems or structures that are non-linear, a-centred, non-hierarchical, without a single general organising principle and that are continuously making new connections.…”