Challenges in school-based teacher professional development

Abstract

Teacher education has a long tradition of prescriptive curriculum-based and skills-centered models that convey simplistic conceptualisations of teacher learning. Only recently, this trend has shifted towards promoting teachers' agency in their own professional development. In this work, we reflected on the challenges faced ?while building one partnership based on teachers' inquiry during and over the pandemic. The intervention was targeted to promote classroom dialogue and should have employed the use of video recordings to capture and analyze teachers' practice. The main point addressed here was the teachers' tacit rejection of the video recording and the building of a new tool. Moreover, the cordial culture among teachers and researchers did not offer space for critical reflection on practice. Overall, despite the school leadership being willing and committed to the ?programme, the implementation revealed how the schooling system does not value or ?create conditions for TPD.