Much like everywhere else in Europe, the Romanian system of education is subject to constant public scrutiny and political debate prompting reformist claims on every aspect of educational policy, culture and practice. A never-ending state of crisis and an unequivocally asserted need for urgent change are built-ins of every discursive stance on education, placing full responsibility with teachers as agents of change (Surcel and Popescu, 2015; Voinea 2019). Unlike many European countries, in Romania less than 30% of school teachers are older than 50 (The European Commission’s Education and Training Monitor, 2019) which, combined with an expected decline in the overall number of teachers in line with student population, makes any reform of recruitment or initial teacher education impactful on only a minority of the profession (OECD, 2017). This places high stakes on working with the teachers already hired and emphasizes the importance of improving teaching quality though relevant continuing teacher professional development and learning initiatives. It is proposed exploring the degree to which a shift from a culture of teachers’ continuing professional development (TPD) to one of professional learning and development (PLD) in the sense proposed by Ostinelli et al. (in press) is visible in policy documents and in TPD programs and initiatives at national level, by addressing the following research question: To what extent is a shift towards a culture of professional learning and development visible at discursive level in policies and programs addressing teachers’ continuing professional development? In answering our research question we will pay special attention to the ways in which teachers are positioned as agents of change by current educational policies and relevant initiatives and forms of continuing professional development. Through discourse analysis of available policy documents and mission statements of selected TPD programs we seek to explore how learning is conceptualized in current approaches to teachers’ continuing professional development in Romania. In a first reading of documents we found that despite the importance quasi-generally attributed to teachers and to the work they do, consensus is yet to be built on how to put in place a system of professional learning and development for teachers that is calibrated with the requirements and pressures of intended reforms in education. Teachers’ learning agency, their needs (Zoller, 2015), their resources, visions or approaches to professional learning and development are hardly ever the topics of concern in policies of and in approaches to professional development and learning for teachers.

European Commission (2019), The Education and Training Monitor Romania 2019. https://ec.europa.eu/education/resources-and-tools/document-library/education-and-training-monitor-2019-romania-report_en. OECD (2017), Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education, Kitchen, H., et al., Romania 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264274051-en. Ostinelli, G. (in press) Policy, culture and practice in teacher professional development in five European countries. A comparative analysis. Surcel, A. R., Popescu, C. (2015) The National System of Training Teaching Staff in the Secondary Education System in Romania, Valahian Journal of Economic Studies, Vol. 6(20), Issue 4, pp. 89 – 94. Voinea, M. (2019) Rethinking Teacher Training according to 21st Century Competences, European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, vol.4 (3), pp.20-26. Zoller, K. (2015), “Teachers’ perception of professional development”, PedActa, Vol. 5/2, pp. 15-22.