Discursive Positioning of Teacher Learning: High-Performance Instruction or Productive Pedagogy?

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Learning Through Conversation

Abstract

Teacher learning is a topic of immense interest and is predominantly approached using a standards-based model of teacher effectiveness and instruction (Darling-Hammond, 2017). In this article, we argue that a standards-based approach while necessary is not sufficient as a social responsibility to assure schooling for public-interest values and democracy. Instead, we draw from alternative frameworks of productive pedagogy and community-orientation (Bernstein, 2000; Fielding, 2007; Gore, 2009). We validate this framework using results from one doctoral study in the Republic of Ireland which examined the perspectives of in-service teachers (n=162) at a time of unprecedented reform. Findings indicated a fourfold typology: functional learning; technocratic learning; cooperative learning and transformative learning. The study has implications that go well beyond one nation state.

Authors

• Geraldine Mooney Simmie, University of Limerick

• Jeanne Lonergan, University of Limerick