Endeavouring to understand some of the processes in becoming a teacher, the research that originally contributed to this paper (Czerniawski 2009, 2010) asked what part is played by national pedagogic traditions, national policy contexts and institutional settings in the changing values and emerging identities of newly qualified teachers.  Through an analysis of interviews and semi-structured questionnaires this paper revisits the professional lives of twenty-seven of those participants from cities in Germany, Norway and England, ten years after they qualified as teachers examining the variety and depth of experience they have had of continuing professional development (CPD). 

The continuing professional development of teachers is situated in a complex amalgam combining teacher biography, identity work and the values embedded within different communities of practice (Wenger, 1998).  Discourses related to teacher professionalism and economic globalisation, it is argued, shape government policies for education provision in general and CPD in particular (Day & Sachs, 2009). And yet how these discourses emerge, and the practices emanating from them, within different national borders vary.  In work examining the rhetoric and reality of CPD across Europe, Sugrue (2009) for example, notes that what materialises is a “series of overlapping, intersecting, conflicting and contradictory rhetorics, policies and practices, where new thinking collides with more traditional and often outmoded structures and practices” (p.68). 

The professional role constructed by teachers through university training, policy documents, text books etc can be powerfully deconstructed by the realities of teaching in urban contexts particularly where the likelihood of experiencing critical incidents (Ketchtermans and Ballet, 2002) is greater. For many of these teachers the relevance, accessibility and need of CPD vary enormously within and beyond national boundaries.  Higher concentrations of social housing, higher relative population densities, greater ethnic diversity and areas of marked socio-economic disadvantage can provide dramatic socialising experiences for pupils and teachers alike.  The identities of teachers can therefore be mediated in different ways through the positioning of key values surrounding becoming a teacher in these urban contexts.

 In Norway, Germany and England opportunities for promotion vary in ways that construct teaching differently making discussions about possible convergence of teaching identities problematic.   Similarly, opportunities for CPD vary in part shaped by national contextual specificities.  The more utilitarian forms of formalised professional development found in England reflect in part, the English educational context in ways not possible in either Norway or Germany.  The Norwegian curriculum, although specifying elements that need to be taught, is not as prescriptive as the English National curriculum.  The existence of the German tripartite system, with its variety of different school types within the federal structure means that most schools determine what should/should not be examined. In adopting a suitable analytical framework acknowledging these contextual specificities (Furlong 2000) influencing the continuing professional development of teachers the author has drawn on Layder’s (1998) adaptive theory informed by the grounded theory tradition associated with Glaser and Strauss (1967) noting more recent interpretations (e.g. Charmaz 2006). Part of the analysis also draws on Foucauldian notions of surveillance and policing (Foucault 1975).

Ang, L., and Trushell, J., (2010). ‘Learning and Teaching in a Metropolis: Introduction’ in L., Ang, J., Trushell, and P., Walker, (Eds) (2010), Learning and Teaching in a Metropolis: Volume 60 At the Interface ‘The Idea of Education’. RODOPI: Amsterdam, New York. (p1-12) Charmaz, K., (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: Sage. Czerniawski G. (2009). Positioning the values of early career teachers in Norway, Germany and England. European Journal of Education 44, no. 3: 421-440. Czerniawski, G., (2010). ‘Constructing and Deconstructing Newly-Qualified Teachers’ Values in an Urban Context’ in L., Ang, J., Trushell, and P., Walker, (Eds) (2010), Learning and Teaching in a Metropolis: Volume 60 At the Interface ‘The Idea of Education’. RODOPI: Amsterdam, New York.. (p83-100) Czerniawski G. (2011). Emerging Teachers and Globalization. New York: Routledge. Day C., Sachs J., (2009) International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers, Maidenhead: Open University Press Esping-Anderson G., and J.Myles. (2009). The Welfare State and Redistribution, unpublished paper. Available at G.Esping-Anderson’s Web site. http://www.esping-anderson.com/?a201ce18 Foucault, M. 1975. Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, New York: Random House. Furlong, J., L. Barton., S. Miles., and G. Whitty. (2000). Teacher Education in Transition. Buckingham: Open University Press. Ketchtermans G.; Ballet K.; (2002) The Micropolitics of Teacher Induction – a narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation, in: Teaching and Teacher Education no 18 p105-120 Layder, D (1998) Sociological Practice: linking theory and social research. London: Sage. Sugrue C., (2009) Rhetorics and realities of CPD across Europe: from cacophony towards coherence, in Day C., Sachs J., (2009) International Handbook on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers, Maidenhead: Open University Press Wenger R., (1998) Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning and Identity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Winne, P.H., and P.A. Alexander. [eds] 2006. The Handbook of Educational Psychology. New York, Routledge