The importance of teachers has long been acknowledged (OECD, 2005). It is no surprise therefore that many nations attempt to implement country-wide policies to support ongoing teacher learning. Developing programmes that support effective teaching, at scale, might be considered an understandable policy aspiration, yet the goal seems elusive.  Many such efforts have experienced problems, but research sheds little light on the reasons. Much published research focuses on small-scale projects, with some national-level literature – highlighted in recent ECER symposia and consequent publications (Jones, Ostinelli & Crescentini, 2024), but there is a paucity of literature synthesising and theorising across national contexts. 

This session seeks to build a research agenda focusing on professional learning at scale, defined as formal processes for organising teacher professional learning across entire countries. Through consideration of four distinctive contexts, three from Europe and one in the USA, we identify a pressing need to conceptualise professional learning at scale both within and across nations, and to develop sophisticated means of theorising capable of transcending individual geopolitical contexts.  

In 2024, Florida passed legislation establishing the Lastinger Center in statute and charged the Center (S. 1004.561) to develop and administer programs, provide professional learning and technical assistance, and conduct and publish research to improve student achievement in early learning, literacy, and mathematics across a US state with a growing population of over 22 million residents. Researching the impact of the Center’s contributions is therefore of both political and pedagogical importance. 

Policy governing a national professional learning support service in Ireland favoured a transmissive model of professional learning in response to unprecedented educational reform, challenging the service’s capacity to provide transformative professional learning at scale and incorporate longitudinal research into its work. Despite this reductive lens, the service itself privileged a sustained and contextualised model of professional learning, conducive to in-built research endeavours. An expansive learning (Engeström, 2004) culture within the organisation positioned its team of teacher educators as boundary spanners, operating at the interface of policy, research and practice.

Scotland is embarking on an ambitious nationwide programme of research-informed professional learning for teachers through the establishment of the Scottish Government’s Centre for Teaching Excellence. The overall aim of the Centre is to support teachers to both undertake and engage with research to enhance their practice. The panel contribution will problematise the various stakeholders’ needs and expectations, sharing thoughts about the challenges of balancing short-term evaluative data designed to make real-time changes to provision, with longer-term research that can contribute to global understandings of professional learning at scale.

The changing education system over the past three decades in Wales has been described as a white-knuckle ride for school leaders and teachers. The intention to create national policy to develop a high-quality education profession, and to set up a co-constructed national approach to professional learning, has encountered significant challenges at the implementation level. Research is needed to identify causes of inconsistent implementation and address reasons why provision of professional learning at scale is proving more challenging than anticipated.

Wider discussion will focus on what we already know about professional learning at scale, how we might synthesise that knowledge to develop a more coherent body of international research, and how we might work towards identifying and addressing research gaps. Questions for consideration include:

• What do we know about what and how educators learn when nations try to scale-up professional learning?
• What is the impact in classrooms, schools and systems?
• How can research inform policy to create conditions that support quality professional learning at scale?
• What theoretical insights might be gained from synthesising across nation states to build a coherent and cumulative body of research?

Engeström, Y. (2004) ‘New forms of learning in co-configuration work’, Journal of Workplace Learning,16(1/2), pp.11-21. Florida Statute 1004.561 (2024). https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2024/1004.561 Jones, K., Ostinelli, G. and Crescentini, A. (Eds.) (2024) Innovation in Teacher Professional Learning in Europe: research, policy and practice. Routledge OECD. (2005). Teachers Matter: Attracting and developing and retaining teachers. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/9789264018044-en.pdf?expires=1698329232&id=id&accname=ocid177542&checksum=A7AA96FA0881D122E3A353ADCD98A509