Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2009

Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance

Mind the Gap

  • Has the possibility to transform policy and practice rather than merely report upon it
  • Engages in serious epistemological arguments in relation to the nature of professional knowledge, how it is constructed and employed
  • Covers a wide range of policies and practices across an international spectrum

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (12 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
  2. Introduction: Current Problematics in Teacher Professional Learning

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 2-12
  3. Developing Courage

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 31-41
  4. Mode 3 Knowledge: What It Is and Why We Need It

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 44-53
  5. Reclaiming Quality

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 67-79
  6. What Is at Stake and What Is at Risk

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 82-92
  7. Who Pays the Piper? Agendas, Priorities and Accountabilities

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 93-100
  8. What Learning Community? A Knotty Problem

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 101-111
  9. Case Study: The Higher Degree

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 114-122
  10. The Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 123-133
  11. Closing the Gap: Conclusion

    • Susan Groundwater-Smith, Nicole Mockler
    Pages 135-139
  12. Back Matter

    Pages 141-158

About this book

Teacher Professional Learning in an Age of Compliance: Mind the Gap examines ways in which practice-based inquiry in educational settings, in a number of different countries and contexts, can transcend current ways of working and thinking such that authentic professional learning is the result.

The authors contend that education policy, under pressure from a number of quarters, is retreating into a standardized, audited, and backward-looking arena, with the advances of more progressive educational philosophy being rolled back.

In an age where practitioner inquiry and action research have often been ‘hijacked’ for the purposes of broad-based policy implementation, this book offers a rationale for reclaiming the critical edge so fundamental to inquiry-based professional learning. It examines the potential of inquiry-based forms of teacher professional learning to contribute to the growth of professional knowledge for and about teachers’ work.

The authors intend that the book will assist in building new forms of professional knowledge that go beyond the current compliance model – engineered from less enduring materials – to inform a new model with its foundations in a strong ethical and moral framework. They also believe that this new model, if implemented, will help to reverse today’s conservative educational trends and make teacher professional development a force for genuine progress once again.

They have consciously moved away from the celebratory tone of much of the academic reporting of teacher professional learning, adopting instead a genuinely critical edge. In covering a wide range of policies and practices from across the international spectrum, they have allowed themselves the freedom to engage in serious epistemological arguments about the nature of professional knowledge, as well as how it is constructed and employed.

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access