A question of trust? Understanding teachers’ choices on the continuing professional development marketplace in Germany and Sweden

Author(s):

Wieland Wermke(presenting / submitting)Wieland Wermke(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 11 A, Questions of Trust, Feedback, and Sustainability

Paper Session

Time:

2011-09-15

16:45-18:15

Room:

K 31/201,1 FL., 26

Chair:

Contribution

@font-face { font-family: "Arial"; }@font-face { font-family: "Cambria"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } This contribution aims to investigate teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) in different national contexts. Teachers’ CPD has changed in recent years by shifting its perspective from a view where teachers “have been able to choose at will from a “smorgasbord” of (mainly) short one-shot workshops and lectures to one in which life-long-learning is regarded as essential and for all as a mandatory part of every teacher’s needs. Thus teachers are seen as individual agent in a CPD marketplace. Regarding teachers from this perspective raises the question of how they act in this marketplace, i.e. which opportunities do they accept and which they refuse. In addition, it is even more compelling to examine what factors lay behind why teachers decide how they decide. The contribution aims to investigate the choices of teachers in the marketplace and it argues that this behaviour is affected by particularities of the national context teachers work in. The choices of teachers in this contribution will be explained by the investigation of relations of trust that exist or not exist in the CPD marketplace. To examine the influence of the context the article will compare teachers in two different national contexts, Germany and Sweden.

Method

The questions are examined by using empirical data from two questionnaire studies about teachers’ continuing professional development with a sample of total 712 teachers in Germany and Sweden in 46 schools. Since the contribution is interested in an understanding of teachers’ choices on the marketplace as a collective phenomenon, a quantitative approach is chosen.

Expected Outcomes

The results show that relational trust is an important social property in teachers’ CPD marketplace. It is a relevant and significant predictor for the importance of a knowledge source. Teachers need to have trust in a certain source of knowledge if they think this is important for their continuing professional development. Furthermore, the national context has great influence. German teachers have to trust a knowledge source much more, if they assess it as important for their CPD. This is true for each tested source of knowledge. Even though relational trust still has a relevant and significant effect on Swedish teachers’ CPD, compared with their German colleagues, for them there is not the same necessity for relational trust in a source.

References

Bolam, R. & Mcmahon, A. (2004) Literature, definitions and models: Towards a conceptual map, in: C. Day & J. Sachs (Eds) International handbook on the continuing professional development of teachers. Berkshire, Open University Press), 32-64. Bryk, A. S. & Schneider, B. (2004) Trust in schools. A core ressource for improvement, (New York, Russell Sage Foundation). Carlgren, I. (2010) The swedish comprehensive school - lost in transition. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft (onlinefirst). Cosner, S. (2009) Building organizational capacity through trust. Educational Administration Quarterly, 45(2), 248-291. Luhmann, N. (2000) Vertrauen. Ein mechanismus der reduktion sozialer komplexität, (4. edn) (Stuttgart, Lucius & Lucius). Wermke, W. (2010) Professional development in context. Teachers’ professional development culture in germany and sweden. Professional Development in Education (onlinefirst).

Author Information

Wieland Wermke (presenting / submitting)

Stockholm University

Department of Education

Stockholm

Wieland Wermke (presenting / submitting)

Stockholm University, Sweden

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