Since 2016, there has been discussion about a change of the name and scope of the network. The name of the network 1. 'Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations' has been felt to be too complicated and long. We have also explicitly discussed about the position of our NW in the whole set of networks, and one argument for the change of the name is to avoid overlapping with other NWs, especially NW 10, NW 26 and NW 32. A new name “Professional Learning and Development” was proposed by the convener team in 2017, and it was accepted by the network meeting in 2018. This name has been also accepted by the link conveners’ meeting in Berlin in April 2019, and by the EERA Council in September 2019. This name will be introduced for ECER 2020, and entails a significant evolution in the idea of teacher professional education, since, in a context of lifelong and life-wide learning, conceives teaching as a more and more evolving, active and expert activity.
One of the longstanding conveners of NW1, Sara Bubb, retired from the convener post in 2019 and was warmly commended for her excellent work for the network. She was replaced by a new convener who was elected according to the EERA guidelines. All the presenters of NW1 were informed about the election of the new convener by using the ConfTool email system and were asked to name candidates for the convener post by sending an email to the link convener Hannu Heikkinen. Five persons volunteered: one from Norway, one from the UK, one from Turkey and two from Israel. Following the EERA network procedure, all the five candidates had a one minute speech in the network meeting to introduce themselves. The existing convener team elected the new convener in an online meeting after the network meeting. Dr. Amanda Ince was elected for the position on the basis of her active involvement in NW1 in previous years, including reviewing of proposals for NW1.
Hannu Heikkinen had started as the link convener of NW1 in 2015. According to the EERA guidelines, LC mandate will last four years with one possible re-election. The convener team re-elected Heikkinen to the position of link convener for second term (2020-24), thus continuing to share the LC mandate with Ken Jones.
The network meeting was held on Thursday 5th September 2019 12.10 – 13.20 in Building VMP 5 Room 3142. All the authors that presented in NW1 were invited to the meeting through the ConfTool bulk email, and 57 persons attended to the meeting. The program was divided into two parts: (1.) the actual meeting and (2.) discussion about common research interests by using the “speed dating” method. During the recent five years, Network 1 has encouraged researchers to find colleagues with shared interests by using different kinds of inclusive and participatory methods, like “speed dating” this year.
The growing number of symposia shows that new collaborations indeed have emerged within the NW. The Network 1 organised also a joint symposium with NW30 Environmental and Sustainability Education Research, ESER chaired by Sally Windsor.