Professionally Developing Teachers

Professional development for teachers has long been seen as a major way in which student learning outcomes can be improved and new educational practices instituted within schooling systems. This research project, using a narrative inquiry approach described by Clandinin & Connelly (2000), presents three primary school teachers' professional development experiences in regional Australia. The study indicates professional development is an individual experiential process that is ongoing and occurs within a complex professional landscape incorporating biographical, social, historical and systemic contexts of operation. Teachers' professional development is integrally associated with stories of identity over time and incorporates negotiated relationships with others who share the educational landscape in which they work. This narrative inquiry includes not only the participants' perspectives of their experiences, but also the researcher's experiences in using narrative inquiry. The reader is invited to view teachers developing professionally from the individual's perspective and consider the value of such perspectives when considering teachers' professional growth within our schools.