Main Content
Session Information
01 SES 06 A, Teacher Professional Learning and Development in 11 European Countries (Part III)
Symposium Part III, continued from 01 SES 02 A (Part I) and 01 SES 03 A (Part II)
Contribution
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.
References
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.
Programme by Networks, ECER 2021
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
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