The Millenium Development Goal of ‘Quality Education for All’ focuses our attention on the need for successful models of education reform.  In addition, the flow of evidence of the benefits of education both in terms of economic gains (eg Hanushek and Woessmann, 2012) and social cohesion (Garcia, 2012) reinforce the urgency of this challenge. Arguably the key to successful education reform is the moral purpose of teachers (Fullan, 1993) and their extended professionality (Frost, 2012).

 This symposium draws on a number of linked studies to examine the crucial role of teacher professionality in relation to education reform.  The link between these papers is the association with the aims and activities of the International Teacher Leadership initiative (Frost, 2011) which continues to support and encourage research and development that aims to enhance teacher professionality.  However, the papers in this symposium reflect new or ongoing research projects.  These projects are being conducted in wide range of European countries including Portugal, Finland, Romania, Turkey, and at least two non-European countries: Egypt and Kyrgystan.  The cultural contexts may be quite different, but the concern to find effective reform strategies is a shared one.

 The first paper, (Frost and Redondo Sama) arises from a European Commission funded Marie Curie Fellowship established to examine the impact on school improvement of teacher leadership. The second paper (Flores) arises from a three-year research and development project in Portugal, the first stage of which was reported at ECER 2013. This paper focuses on the final stage of that project. The third paper (Underwood) arises from an ongoing doctoral study which follows up on the international links forged through the ITL initiative and drawing data from teachers in a number of Balkan countries including Romania and Croatia to investigate the impact of global interconnection on teachers’ professional identity. The fourth paper (Bolat) reports on the scaling-up of a Turkish initiative linked to the ITL initiative. The final paper (Eltemamy and Teleshaliyev) builds on research already completed in Kyrgystan (Teleshaliyev, 2013) and draws from ongoing doctoral studies which address teacher professionality.  Although these projects are located in countries beyond Europe, they are nevertheless fertile ground for explorations of educational reform and re-professionalisation; they are therefore highly relevant to European and global contexts.

The approach to this symposium will an interactive one in which papers are presented in such a way as to enable participants to engage in discussion and pose their own questions.  The commitment to fostering critical dialogue is one that is shared amongst the presenters and these values will be evident in the way the symposium is structured and facilitated. The discussant will bring her experience of being part of the CREA group in Barcelona and her interest in ‘critical communicative methodology’ (Gomez et al., 2011).

References

Frost, D. (2011) The International Teacher Leadership project, inForm 12, Cambridge: LfL

Frost, D. (2012) From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation, Professional Development in Education (special issue on Teacher Leadership and Professional Development) 38 (2) pp. 205-227.

Garcia (2012) Achieving social cohesion in Europe through education: a success story, in Shuayb, M. (ed.) Rethinking education for social cohesion: international case studies, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.

Gómez, A. et al. (2011) Critical communicative methodology: informing real social transformation through research, Qualitative Inquiry 17(3) 235–245

Hanushek, E. A. & Woessmann, L  (2012) The economic benefit of education reform in the European Union CESifo Economic Studies, 58 (1) 73–109

Teleshaliyev, N. (2013) “Leave Me Alone—Simply Let Me Teach”: An Exploration of Teacher Professionalism in Kyrgyzstan, European Education, 45 (2) 51–74.