Ireland’s educational system has traditionally suffered from a “prevalence of professional insulation and isolation” (Teaching Council, 2010, p. 26). This has lead to a “fear of evaluation” and teachers are reluctant to share innovations for fear of being deemed arrogant (Hogan et al., 2007). This coincides with a culture of ‘competitive individualism’ (Coolahan, 2003), where “knowledge hoarding” dominates (Cross, 1996, p. 230). More than three decades ago, there was an increased momentum on the prioritisation of teacher education in Ireland. It was highlighted that for change to be implemented, “timing is…significant and requires professional skill and ‘feel’ for the right moment for action” (Coolahan, 1995, p. 12). It was also argued that: “change in the domain of education must take into account the lessons from the past” (Michel, 1995, p. 80).Yet, when the Teaching Council of Ireland (2013) published ‘Guidelines on School Placement’, there were questions about the feasibility of their introduction, in such a turbulent political and economic context (Mulcahy and McSharry, 2012). Over this same period, the Teaching Council also published other policies and codes, all of which promote the “three I’s” (“innovation, integration and improvement”) as core to all stages of the teacher education continuum (Teaching Council, 2013, p. 11). Teachers were asked to engage with these guidelines at a time of major political and economic upheaval where there have been a whole battery of assaults on the profession such as: unprecedented cuts, capped salaries, limited resources, fluid contracts, redeployment and redundancy threats (Mulcahy & McSharry, 2012). The global economic crisis brought the “Croke Park” and “Haddington Road” agreements which further eroded working conditions, resulting in a further loss of good will and volunteerism (ASTI, 2014). To compound the issue further, there are enduring questions about the quality of continuous professional development (CPD) in Ireland and indeed, there in a lack of consideration of the commitment and responsibility of the teacher educator in CPD (MacPhail et al., 2014). This does not bode well for the development of student teachers or cooperating teachers or the implementation of the new guidelines. 

There are well-documented benefits for engaging in and with a community of practice (CoP), some of which are fiscal (Parker et al., 2012) and socio-cultural (Teaching Council, 2010). Moreover, the Teaching Council (2010) recognises ‘communities of practice’ (CoP) as a site for challenging the dominant approach to CPD and supporting teachers to take responsibility for their own learning. It has been agreed internationally that mentoring and being mentored can play an important role in the transition to more of a “knowledge sharing” culture in teaching (Cross, 1996, p. 230). Moreover, there have been particular calls for using CoPs to develop “a vision of emancipatory teacher education practice” (Gillette and Schiltz, 2014, p. 236). The study reported in this paper aimed to develop a mentoring CoP of cooperating teachers who intended to develop their practices and to support one another to identify (Lewin, 1948) and solve problems as a community (MacPhail et al., 2014). It aimed to consider if: engaging in and with a mentoring CoP could support members to overcome roadblocks to their development as effective cooperating teachers?

A participatory action research (PAR) approach provided a framework for CoP activities and development. A cyclical process of systematically engaging in and with problem exploration, problem solving and managing conflicts and change was employed (Chevalier and Buckles, 2013).

ASTI, 2014. ASTI Submission to the Teaching Council on the Continuum of teacher education. ASTI. Chevalier, J.M. and Buckles, D.J., 2013. Participatory Action Research: Theory and Methods for Engaged Inquiry. Routledge, London. Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K., 2007. Research Methods in Education, 6th ed. Routledge, New York. Coolahan, J., 2003. Attracting, Developing and Retaining Effective Teachers: Country Background Report for Ireland. Coolahan, J. (Ed.), 1995. Policy Formulation and Implementation: Overview of the Irish Context, in: Issues and Strategies in the Implementation of Educational Policy: Proceedings of a Bicentenary Conference. St. Patrick’s College, Dublin, p. 8–17. Denscombe, M., 2010. The Good Research Guide for Small Scale Social Research Projects. Open University press, Berkshire, England. Gillette, M.D. and Schiltz, B.D., 2014. Do you see what I see? Teacher capacity as vision for education in a democracy, in: Cothran-Smith, M., Feiman-Nemser, S., McIntyre, D.J., Demers, K.E. (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. Enduring Questions in Changing Contexts. Routledge, New York, p. 231–237. Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A., 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine, Chicago. Hogan, P., Brosnan, A., De Róiste, B., MacAlister, A., Malone, A., Quirke-Bolt, N. and Smith, G., 2007. Learning Anew: Final Report of the Research and Development Project. Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century, 2003-07. NUI Maynooth, Maynooth. MacPhail, A., Patton, K., Parker, M. and Tannehill, D., 2014. Leading by Example: Teacher Educators’ Professional Learning Through Communities of Practice. Quest 66: p. 39–56. McNiff, J., 2013. Action Research: Principles and Practice, 3rd ed. Routledge, London. Mulcahy, C. and McSharry, M., 2012. The Changing Face of Teacher Education in Ireland: A Major Overhaul or a Cosmetic Review? Educational Research EJournal 1, p. 91–103. Parker, M., Patton, K. and Tannehill, D., 2012. Mapping the Landscape of Communities of Practice as Professional Development in Irish Physical Education. Irish Education Studies. 31, p. 311–327. Silverman, D., 2006. Interpreting Qualitative Data: Methods for Analysing Talk, Text and Interaction, 3rd ed. Sage, London. Taherian, K. and Shekarchian, M., 2008. Mentoring for Doctors. Do its Benefits Outweigh its Disadvantages? Medical Teacher 30, p. 95–99. Teaching Council, 2013. Guidelines on School Placement. Teaching Council, Maynooth. Teaching Council, 2010. Draft Policy on the Continuum of Teacher Education. Teaching Council, Maynooth. Thomas, J.R., Nelson, J.K. and Silverman (Eds.), 2005. Research Methods in Physical Activity, 5th ed. Human Kinetics, Leeds.