This paper draws on a broader piece of research, funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (National Foundation for Science and Technology), focused on teacher leadership and professional development in the context of challenges generated by the economic crisis in Portugal (Flores, 2014). Challenges included salary cuts, high rates of unemployment as well as policies on teacher evaluation, school governance and school curriculum reorganisation. A dimension of this broader research programme was networking and its role in teachers’ professional development. The following questions guided the study: - Why do teachers engage in learning networks? - What do they learn from them? - How do they foster their teachers’ professional development and professionalism? Methods included a national survey (2700 teachers) on teacher professionalism and wider policy context of teaching; interviews with key informants; focus groups (100 teachers); and the development and evaluation of strategies to involve teachers exercising leadership in their schools (66 teachers). In this paper, findings from the third phase of data collection are presented. Data pointed to the importance of learning networks in fostering teacher professional development. Participants stress key issues such as the possibility of building professional knowledge together, sharing experiences and ideas and enhancing professional motivation and morale through discussions about the teaching profession and the conditions in which teachers work. However, both structural and cultural aspects also emerged namely the professional and school culture, the school leadership and the personal and professional values as teachers as key mediating influences on teacher learning and professional development. Overall, this study provided empirical evidence of the complexity of teacher learning and leadership and it highlighted the need to support and sustain teachers’ continuing professional development in the workplace within a view of teachers as lifelong learners and of schools as professional learning communities.

Flores, M. A. (2014) Profissionalismo e liderança dos professores. Santo Tirso: De Facto Editores. Frost D. (2012) From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation, Professional Development in Education, 38 (2), 74-82.