Cross-Country Collaboration in Pursuit of Powerful Teacher Professional Learning

• In Event: 64.051 - International Collaborations and Perspectives on Teacher Learning

Abstract

While job-embedded forms of professional learning (such as practitioner inquiry and professional learning communities) have shown great promise at the school and district level, little is known about how they can be fostered on a grand scale. In 2015 participants from six European Union nations developed and implemented a job-embedded professional development program centered on practitioner inquiry, professional learning communities, and teachers’ use of scholarly literature. This case study documents the collaboration of the project team across their different countries, languages, and education systems, describing the project in detail, the nature of the cross-country collaborative effort, and facilitators and inhibitors to cross-country collaboration focused on teacher professional learning.

Authors

• James Kieran Rigney, University of Florida

• Nancy Fichtman Dana, University of Florida

• Rik Vanderhauwaert, Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen