Whether people believe that the world entered the post-modern era after World War II or that the world is currently in transition to a new era, few would argue that the last 50 years have brought rapid, unpredictable, and profound global changes. Changes included new theories of learning, new organizational theories, new understandings of knowledge and leadership, new global mobility and interdependence, and almost instant communication and dissemination of knowledge thanks to the Internet. New terms were coined to capture these changing ideas and assumptions: knowledge workers (Drucker, 1959), organizational learning (Cangelosi & Dill, 1965; March & Simon, 1958), knowledge society (Drucker, 1969), learning to learn (Schön, 1975), transforming leadership (Burns, 1978), mental models (Craik, 1943; Senge, 1990), and glocalization (Robertson, 1995). Education was not immune to these evolving theories and concepts, and although the profession has been slower than business and industry to absorb and apply them, they continue to influence and transform the teaching profession. Education is changing, sometimes at a global or national level, sometimes at a school system or school level. And whereas the 20th century provided the catalysts for changing people’s thinking, some of the most significant educational changes in behavior are only now playing out in practice. For example, concepts within organizational learning theory such as shared leadership, professional learning communities, and inquiry have galvanized schools on both sides of the Atlantic to transform learning and teaching. Organizational learning is an on-going process of continuous improvement, a transformation from within that prioritizes learning for all members. Indeed, organizations’ vitality and survival appear to depend on how well they nurture new members and encourage members’ learning and connections (Collinson & Cook, 2007). Both of these re-discovered understandings are evident in numerous countries as educators strengthen teachers’ and principals’ knowledge and practices by improving teaching and leadership preparation, by mentoring novice teachers and principals during their induction years (e.g., Killeavy & Murphy, 2006; McNally, 2002; Totterdell & Arrowsmith, 2007), and by designing more powerful professional development opportunities (e.g., Sparks, 2002). In doing so, these systems build organizational capacity by providing opportunities for experienced members to learn from and with novices or to promote teachers’ learning and collaboration through new forms of professional development such as lesson study (e.g., Lewis, 2002), teacher research through diaries (Alaszewski, 2006; McDonough, 1994), or alternatives to annual performance evaluations (e.g., Goldstein & Noguera, 2006; Ray-Taylor et al., 2006). The following contributions will expand current understandings of how the international educational community is learning to transform teaching: 1. Vivienne Collinson (U.S.A.) – To Learn or Not to Learn…A Widening Gap? 2. Andreja Starcic (Slovenia) – School Leadership for Educational Change: Expectations, Preparation, and Practice 3. Maureen Killeavy (Ireland) – From Teaching to Learning: How Mentor Teachers Learn from Their Own Professional Development to Support the Professional Learning of Beginning Teachers 4. Margareth Drakenberg (Sweden) – From Teaching to Learning: Diaries as a Research and Learning Tool for Teachers 5. Charinee Triwaranu (Thailand) – Changing Practices: Developing Teachers’ Thinking Through Lesson Study Discussant: Brian Hudson (Umeå University, Sweden) Chair: Vivienne Collinson

(I don’t know how a symposium can have a methodology.) The papers represent both quantitative and qualitative methods—from national surveys to a case study to interviews to diaries to observations.

The collection of papers represents emerging trends and understandings in continuing professional development (CPD) in five countries on three continents. Taken together, they provide an opportunity to spark discussion and questions as well as indicating the “local” application of some global changes in the first decade of the 21st century.