Professional development networks: From transmission to co-construction

Abstract

This article offers an extract of a qualitative case study focused on collaborative professional development of science teachers in a transformative continuous professional development (TCPD) network, whose aim is the professional development of science teachers with a view to improving praxis. Teacher narratives generated through an iterative process of active interviews are analysed inductively and themes are identified. Insights shared in this article focus on teachers’ ways of working with knowledge and how this was influenced. The study reveals that the ways in which the teachers are taught at times inhibit innovation, perpetuating transmissive approaches to teaching and learning. Lack of professional development and support, and tensions between policy formulation and implementation, also exacerbated the problem. The study, however, reveals a shift in ways of working with knowledge – a shift from the transmission of knowledge to the co-construction of knowledge.