Despite a burgeoning body of research on teacher identity development, little is known about how incongruities between the ideal and real-life teaching practices create identity tensions. The present study adopted an arts-based approach and examined teachers' ideal and actual teaching practices, and the associated identity tensions and related…

Considerable research has shown professional learning communities (PLC) within schools as a beneficial way for teachers to develop professionally within the context of their own work environment. Although the positives are often highlighted in PLC's, there is limited information as to how teachers function within these spaces. This qualitative…

This case study qualitatively examines the process and outcomes of teacher-initiated professional development through the experiences of an action research collective. Following the group over the course of two years, findings detail how a voluntary group of colleagues organised and experienced leading their own professional development. Through…

Supporting new academics when they begin a university career is important for them to adapt quickly and easily to the institutional goals and expectations. For those arriving from overseas and a different culture, often with families, this support is even more crucial. In this article, 10 academics from a range of disciplines, in which nine were…

This article draws on interview data across eight months from senior teachers (i.e. experienced teachers who are subject leaders) in Egyptian primary schools, to explore how they described their learning during a professional development project in which they led gatherings of interested teachers in teacher learning communities. The article…

Team teaching as a concept and approach has long been advocated at a policy level both internationally and in Ireland. However, there is very little focussed research on the use of team teaching as an approach in post-primary schools in Ireland or on its potential as a medium of teacher professional development. This article presents the findings…

Recent structural and conceptual changes to initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland have impacted on the professional roles of many teacher educators. This study explores the perspectives and identity of seven placement tutors on the Professional Master of Education (PME) course in Maynooth University in relation to their role, past and…

This paper investigates how teachers' professional agency afforded and constrained their decisions to participate in or withdraw from professional learning communities (PLCs). While PLCs are often thought to position teachers as agents, explicit links between teacher agency and key features of PLCs have not been explored. Data from interviews with…

This article focuses on the processes that come into play as part of a school development project and how these processes contribute to strengthening teacher professionalism. Through processes of consciousness raising and the development of learning cultures where tacit knowledge becomes explicit and shared, and new practices are tested out and…

This paper draws on a range of theoretical perspectives on the construction of new teachers' professional identity. It focuses particularly on the impact of the development in many national education systems of a performative culture of the management and regulation of teachers' work. Whilst the role of interactions with professional colleagues…