Changing perceptions, practice and pedagogy : challenges for and ways into teacher change

Abstract

Implementing innovation in schools requires careful orchestration of a host of dimensions and stakeholders. Stakeholders fundamental to change are teachers. This article explores the potential of an in-school professional development program at empowering teachers and consequently transforming their perceptions, attitudes, and classroom practice. This program formed part of a 3-year-3-cycle research longitudinal project aimed primarily at promoting Drama within a school situated in a low socioeconomic status area. The discussion centers on the teachers’ initial beliefs, perceptions, knowledge, and practice of Drama and examines the change as a result of the professional development intervention. The research gradually involved all the teacher population (14) in the particular primary state school. At the end of the 3-year project, teachers reported a change in perceptions and enhanced knowledge of Drama conventions and thus felt more confidence to teach the subject. Moreover, they reported that a year after the project had finished, they were still using the Drama strategies learnt in their classrooms.