Transformative professional development to develop and support innovative teachers

Abstract

In this book, the authors discussed how a multitude of factors have an impact on innovative teachers. In particular, in Chapters 1 and 3, a dynamic assemblage of influencing factors was discussed. We argue that understanding the innovative teacher needs more than a list of teachers' characteristics and enabling conditions. In our view, to understand more about innovative teachers, it is not only necessary to know what constitutes an assemblage, it is necessary to understand the intricate complexity inherent in how the assemblage of factors is configured. Strom and Viesca (2021, p. 214) suggest, "an assemblage is not just a particular grouping, but also refers to the way those work together to produce knowledge, action, or other happenings in particular ways". The initial conceptual model presented in Chapter 1 offered a starting point for our discussions about innovative teachers. The model presented in Chapter 3 highlighted the assemblage of influences and added the importance of the influence of a chordal triad of agentic dimensions (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). This enabled us to deepen our understanding of the influence of past, present and future agentic dimensions. Chapter 2 gave further consideration to the implications of policy on innovation in schools, in particular, the challenges of top-down innovation in education underpinned by nee-liberal perspectives. Previous research suggests such policy approaches commonly fail, especially when imposed and teachers are treated as technicians whose role is to implement innovative ideas of others (Arar et al., 2019; Fullan, 2007; Loogrna et al., 2013}. In response, we contend that a counter-narrative for innovation in schools is needed. Subsequent chapters in the book contributed to understanding how various aspects are related in constructing knowledge and experiences essential to understanding innovative teachers. This chapter focuses on bringing together the key findings of the Developing and Supporting Innovative Teachers research study and what we have learned regarding the contribution of transformative professional learning in developing and supporting innovative teachers. The findings suggest that for innovation to flourish, teachers need to be open to new ideas, be curious, able to individually and collaboratively learn from practice, generate innovative ideas to positively impact students' learning and demonstrate agency in translating these innovative ideas into concrete changes to practice. We argue that transformative professional development should be more integrated into the practice of innovative teachers in school, since it cannot be understood in a vacuum. As discussed in Chapter 9, when embedded in practice, transformative professional development can have a positive impact on teacher learning, and can encourage and enable teachers to demonstrate increased agentic behaviour. It is the aim of this chapter to highlight how professional development opportunities within a teacher's workplace, with greater attention to enabling and supporting the development of teacher agency, can create the conditions needed for innovative teachers to thrive. We conclude this chapter by revisiting the conceptual models of innovative teachers presented in this book.