By Lila Armstrong
For nearly a year, educators in Canada have been hard at work learning new skills, developing teaching methods for online delivery and taking advantage of many free resources made available since March, 2020.
But in which direction are we now headed? Has the shine worn off webinars and Zoom sessions? Have we found a few meaningful learning opportunities to focus on, or amidst all the offerings, are we continuing to sign up for professional development (PD) for the sake of it?
As I was researching to prepare for this article, I found myself wishing that I had done this work a long time ago. Understanding the philosophies behind different teacher PD approaches has helped me appreciate how schools, administrators and teachers need to navigate between professional autonomy and a common goal when it comes to learning; it is more than just sitting in a room together on the same day, it is about building structures to enhance student success.
In Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada, the Advancing the Learning Community to Achieve School Goals standard is defined through the simultaneous advancement of student learning and professional excellence: “The LLC leadership team develops and implements school improvement initiatives that are a model for future-oriented learning.” Teacher knowledge is a key part of the school’s ability to reach learning goals. Creating the team requires educators who not only want to share their knowledge but create systems and opportunities for excellence.
With their Professional Development Lens, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) supports the autonomous and collective nature of PD. However depending on which way you read it, the lens does not speak to the implementation of PD as a learning team, only the selection of learning activities. Looking beyond the infographic leads us to this statement from the BCTF: “Education in BC and around the world is continually changing, so it is important for teachers to keep on top of new research and education policies that affect their work with students… Teachers value the opportunity to work with their peers and to enhance their practice in ways that will, in turn, benefit the students in their classes.”
After a year of incredible PD opportunities that have come with either reduced registration rates, or offered for free, I found myself in a mental frenzy over which way to go, what to register for and asking myself what mental mindset I could muster. Here is where knowing your own philosophy can help.
Many of us left teacher’s college with a nice one-to-two-page teaching philosophy in our interview binder (and each page in a plastic sleeve no less!) and when I was working on my teacher-librarian diploma at Queen’s University, we created a philosophy for our libraries. But I must admit that it has been awhile since I sat down and really thought hard about what it is that drives me. Aaron Tombrella, in Revising Your Teaching Philosophy for This Crisis, suggests shortening your teaching philosophy to key words or phrases that can be (possibly) matched to a mnemonic for quick recall. He also writes that he had been “reacting to the crisis, rather than responding proactively using my philosophy.” While this is certainly not the case for all teachers, I would suggest that given the uncertainty of what was coming and what would be expected from us, many of us have just taken all the PD we could.
My research into PD also led to a deeper understanding of another relationship that is important to this discussion: mentorship. Marc Tucker, in his article, Tucker’s Lens: Using Teacher Professional Development to Drive Student Achievement, illustrates how some international models have restructured the teaching profession to resemble a career ladder. While this American article citing Asian school systems might have some impracticalities for us here in Canada, the gist of the article has value. Tucker explains that as teachers become more knowledgeable and effective, they achieve a certain seniority in the school whereby they play a critical mentorship role, but also become part of a research team to “improve the instructional program of the school.” This does sound like what Leading Learning is encouraging LLC teams doesn’t it? The difference is that in the above noted scenario, you are moving out of full-time classroom/library teaching.
Tucker argues that, “Professional development in this model is not so much what happens when teachers sit in workshops, as it is the process of learning that takes place in an environment in which the school is organized so that continuous learning is built into the very fabric of the teachers’ work itself.”
The mentorship piece varies between school boards, and often happens informally as colleagues share stories, successes, and failures with each other. This natural passing of information reduces stress and often, solutions and suggestions are passed on in friendly, oral tradition. This essential support of new teachers is often the lifeline in the first few years of a new teacher’s career. Formalized structures close this circle of PD, offering both the mentor and the mentee opportunities to learn.
I am fortunate, as B.C. teacher-librarian, that we had the opportunity to go back to class in June and are still teaching in schools in February. We have had the opportunity to collect data from our staff and are making changes within our school to better support student learning. We are working towards a model where PD is no longer a series of one-offs.
And what of my personal professional development? After a few frantic weeks of looking for programs and debating another Master’s degree, I realized perhaps taking a break from the screen and taking advantage of the people around me was the PD path that I needed to explore. I have joined the new mentorship pilot project in my school district and am working on several projects with the District Educational Technology Coordinator and my District Teacher-Librarian. I have found a balance between being a mentor while refining a still-new TL practice of my own. I still have many opportunities to engage in learning opportunities within this district bubble, but the sense of focus it gives me is a comfort in a scattered time.
References
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (n.d.). The Professional Development Lens. Retrieved from bctf.ca/ProfessionalDevelopment.aspx?id=54666.
Canadian School Libraries (CSL). 2020. Advancing the Learning Community to Achieve School Goals from Leading Learning: Standards of Practice for School Library Learning Commons in Canada. Retrieved from llsop.canadianschoollibraries.ca/advancing-learning-community/.
Mizell, Hayes. (2010). Why Professional Development Matters. Learning Forward. Retrieved from https://learningforward.org/report/professional-development-matters-2/
Tombrella, Aaron. (2020). Revising Your Teaching Philosophy for This Crisis. Edutopia. Retrieved from www.edutopia.org/article/revising-your-teaching-philosophy-crisis.
Tucker, Marc. (2017). Tucker’s Lens: Using Teacher Professional Development to Drive Student Achievement. NCEE. Retrieved from
ncee.org/2016/01/tuckers-lens-using-teacher-professional-development-to-drive-student-achievement/.
Lila Armstrong is an elementary teacher-librarian in Campbell River, BC. She brings private, public and international teaching experience to her French Immersion teaching practice. Lila is hooked on school and thrives when learning new things. She is currently learning about farming as her family now resides on a farm in the Comox Valley.