Highlighting the role of teachers in school change,
Teacher Agency, Professional Development and School Improvement
explores the important related issues of professional identity, teacher self-efficacy, leadership and autonomy in the context of contested improvement agendas.
Providing analytical frameworks and practical models, this book:
Offers examples of projects, programmes and narratives to illustrate the role of teachers in school change
Invites readers to reconceptualise professional development and re-imagine school improvement
Focuses on enabling teacher agency as the foundation for improvement
Emphasises the importance of human agency to influence environments, lives and learning
Provides strategies for improvement with integrity amidst powerful accountability requirements and external forces for change.
At the heart of this book is a fresh perspective on schooling, in which teacher agency is considered a fundamental dimension of professional development and key to school improvement. This raises necessary and challenging questions about purposes and processes in education. With practical ideas and strategies that can be used to inform and evaluate practice and policy,
is essential reading for headteachers and teachers wishing to lead changes to improve their school and for teacher educators who support them.