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Research activity is one of the key professional learning needs noted by teacher educators working in higher education. The purpose of this study is to explore what research activities Chinese higher education-based physical education teacher educators (PETEds) prioritised and, in turn, expressed their aligned research-related professional learning needs. A sample of 15 Chinese higher education-based PETEds was interviewed. The results conveyed that Chinese PETEds had a strong desire to avail of research-related professional learning activities, with the majority prioritising peer-review publication. The motives for PETEds to be involved in research tend to be extrinsic to the individual and include pressures aligned to the evaluation of their academic position and institute requirements. PETEds who entered teacher education with a PhD were expected and supported to do research, while PETEds without a PhD requested opportunities to undertake a PhD abroad. While it was easier for PETEds to undertake collaborative research with a research group within their faculty/department, there was a lack of collaborative research external to the faculty/department as well as a lack of international collaboration.

Professional development of teacher educators has received growing attention in recent years owing to their important role in preparing teachers for schools and universities, however, female-dominated mid-career EFL teacher educators in regional teacher education universities remain underexplored. This study examined 18 female experienced teacher educators' professional state, teaching beliefs and competence in a non-elite teacher education university. A combination of longitudinal observations, questionnaires, individual interviews, and official documents was employed to gather data. The results reveal the participants' plateauing indicated by their teaching-focused professional identity and the lack of personal and collective agency for professional development and organisational improvement. Personal and contextual factors were found to have caused their perceived lack of professional expertise, research inactivity in the pervading 'publish or perish' climate. The study yields implications to teacher educators, policymakers, and researchers in different educational and cultural contexts.

This article examines leadership and practitioner professional learning (PL) across two multi-school networks. This ethnographic empirical study involved the development of research communities comprised of teacher-led research projects in collaboration with academic researchers (ourselves). We explore what the impact this type of PL and our role as 'outsiders' had on developing teacher agency and teacher/leader identity, and how "leadership for professional learning" (LfPL) emerged through these research activities. Our research sites were a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) and a Teaching School Alliance (TSA) in England. Ethnographic data were collected over a three-year period. Significantly, our approach to understanding the complexity of these learning contexts draws upon socio-cultural theory, particularly Figured Worlds to construct understandings of PL within an identity and agency framework. Further, it utilises the Bakhtinian concept of "outsideness" to theorise how knowledge is mobilised through these collaborations. This approach offers novel insights for conceptualising LfPL as the intra-actions and practices of our research participants as they mediate our entangled PL spaces as leaders, teachers and researchers, together with developing understandings of the complexity of academic positionality as 'the more knowledgeable other' among those who are actually in the know.

In the Netherlands, academically oriented programmes for primary teacher education have recently been established. The aim of this study is to provide insight in the extent to which graduates from these academically oriented programmes are involved in different forms of inquiry-based working and which factors promote or hinder this involvement. Interviews with 10 academically educated teachers and their school leaders and observations of team meetings were used for this exploratory study. Three forms of inquiry-based working could be distinguished; systematic reflection, using research and conducting research. For most teachers, systematic reflection was part of their daily practice and most teachers made use of research; only a minority was involved in conducting research. Factors like ownership and the role of the teacher in the team were related to teachers' involvement in inquiry-based working. Teachers with a formal research function in inquiry-based working in their schools appeared to be more involved in inquiry-based working, especially in conducting research.

In this paper we consider the pedagogic and cultural role of practitioner research (PR) in teacher learning, using a case study approach set in a secondary academy school in the West Midlands of England. We acknowledge teacher learning and its influence on pupils as complex and relational, and that this should encourage more research, not deter or reduce our thinking to false certainties. We note literature that endorses practitioner research, particularly its influence on positive identity shifts and enhanced collegiality. Through in-depth 'acquaintance interviews' we gathered data from six members of the Innovation Unit in the school and one senior management leader. The findings suggests that practitioner research helped them live more fulfilled lives at work. They felt PR increased their confidence, expertise and enthusiasm at work. These aspects contributed to a shift in their identities and changed the ways they felt about themselves and how they thought they were seen by others. We also explore participants' reservations about the role of leadership in teacher learning. Finally we contextualise the rich detail of our interview data with a broader view to establish the importance of and explore connections between collegiality, Macmurray's notions of the personal and the functional, Illich's conviviality concept and Dewey's notion of aesthetic learning experiences. In light of this context, we suggest that practitioner research enriches the working world of teachers, offering an alternative view to some more standardised and standardising CPD programmes.

The establishment and promotion of professional development centers at higher education institutions (HEIs) play a significant role in building and supporting faculty teaching and research capacity. Although not all universities and colleges assign teaching the same significance that they give to research, there are many best practices of professional development programs and centers in research and teaching at HEIs, especially at flagship universities. Flagship universities serve as leaders in the development of regional and global higher education with standards of excellence for research and teaching. This study examines several professional development best practices at 16 flagship universities, with a goal to improve student learning, classroom instruction, and research quality. Five recommendations derived from four identified strategic best practices are provided to HEI administrators in the conclusion section on how to develop and strengthen effective practices to promote optimal professional development at the institution-wide and department/unit levels.

The notion of the "teacher as researcher" has been in the education lexicon since the mid-1970s. School-based research, we suggest, is currently enjoying something of a renaissance, flourishing within the emerging, complex school landscape. This empirical research engages with 25 school leaders to explore the ways in which research-active schools are aware of, and using, ethical guidance in their research practices. In light of a dramatically changed educational landscape, we argue that the time is ripe for a discussion with teachers about ethical considerations and approaches to research. While this research takes place in England, the findings are relevant to international audiences, grappling as they do with issues of professional practice, research practice and understandings of ethical issues in school-based research.

In 2004, McLaughlin, Black-Hawkins and McIntyre published a literature review that explored the ways in which individual teachers, whole schools and groups of networked schools were engaging in practitioner research and enquiry. In the light of significant changes to the education landscape, the empirical research in this article provides an account of engagement with 25 school leaders to explore what schools are doing in the area of practitioner "research" or "enquiry" today. Although teachers in schools may both use research and generate findings, this research was particularly concerned with the generation of professional knowledge through research and enquiry in schools in England today. A sample of school leaders was interviewed to establish their current approach. Findings include questions about the effects on teachers' dissatisfaction in the face of a revealed gap between actuality and idealism, the possible evolution of a new teacher-educator population and the effects on those working in higher education as they address the shifting needs of twenty-first-century teacher education. As school-based research continues to be a factor, this represents a timely scoping of the thinking of school senior leaders and considers the implications of this developing practice.

The focus of this comparative qualitative study is on female teachers' experiences as teacher researchers in Canada and Turkey as they worked towards the completion of their postgraduate degrees in the midst of teaching full-time. Attending carefully to participants' accounts of time use during the research process revealed heavy time pressure as informed by teaching, societal norms and familial obligations. In response to complex schedules, participants engaged in multitasking and research engagement happened amongst multiple personal and professional responsibilities. The findings of this study provide new ways to consider the competing demands shaping women's efforts to professionally develop and learn, and question the sustainability of teacher-led research as a sustainable professional learning endeavour beyond postgraduate studies

This paper explores the experiences of 14 early years educators who participated in a continuing professional development (CPD) programme coordinated by two of the paper's authors. The programme was part of a three-year research project, which aimed at introducing early childhood educators to an inquiry-based approach to mathematics and science education and involved participants as teacher-researchers and curriculum-makers in cycles of action research. From this CPD experience, teachers appeared to reconceptualize traditional teacher and researcher "roles" in more fluid and equitable ways, leading us to explore characteristics of the programme conducive to this shift. The main data source comprised teacher interviews, supplemented by video-recordings of group meetings, classroom enactment of activities and the facilitators' field notes. Findings suggest that the shift was encouraged by the gradual formation of a community of practice; a reconceptualization of the "practical"; and the epistemology-oriented approach adopted in mathematics and science education. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for early years educators' professional development, and the problems of the "theory-practice" divide in such development. Furthermore, the discussion stresses the importance of the socio-cultural context in which such projects take place, particularly as these often draw heavily upon international literature.

Collaborative inquiry (CI) has emerged as a dominant structure for educator professional learning in the twenty-first century. CI engages educators in collaboratively investigating focused aspects of their professional practice by exploring student responses to instruction, leading to new understandings and changes in classroom teaching. However, despite the increased presence of CI, research on CI frameworks has yet to be consolidated and synthesized. The purpose of this systematic, scoping review was to examine literature on the structure, challenges, and benefits of CI as a professional learning structure for educators (i.e. teachers, principals, school district leaders). In total, 42 sources were identified and analysed in relation to characteristics of CI, supports and resources for CI, empirically supported benefits of CI, and enactment challenges. The review found that the majority of texts and research in this field are highly practical, describing CI steps or case-study examples. Accordingly, the current literature reviewed in this paper largely serves a "how to" function for engaging in CI projects with empirical data collected from primarily case-study work. The literature also provides preliminary theoretical articulations for CI as a professional learning structure for educators. The paper concludes with identified areas for future CI research related to: clarifying the focus of CI initiatives, articulating what "inquiry" means in CI, and sustaining CI within the profession of teaching.

Teachers' professional learning can be enhanced by positioning teachers as practitioner researchers and professionals who are capable of generating change within their local educational communities. In this article a teacher's story is used to show how teacher knowledge was developed and how teachers designed research questions, gathered evidence about their teaching and used this evidence to inform their practice and have a positive impact on their students' learning. The article then presents a mapping of elements of professional learning that became apparent in one professional learning program in which teachers were given space to develop skills to research their everyday practice; skills that they can continue to use to refine their practice as teachers in the future. A mapping of the elements that contributed to the overall effectiveness of the professional learning program is presented to contribute to the debate surrounding the characteristics of effective professional learning.

Despite the profound impact of action research coaches on teachers' experiences of the inquiry process, little research exists in the field regarding the coach's role. In this exploratory study, two groups of action research coaches--one novice and one experienced--share their experiences of coaching inquiry during the 2009/10 school year. Out of the focus group interviews conducted with each group of coaches, four challenges arose that spanned across the coaching of both groups, despite the level of experience: time, coaching wondering development, coaching data analysis and administration. Implications and future research directions based on this work are discussed. (Contains 1 note, 2 tables, and 1 figure.)

As part of a government-initiated programme based on the concept of professional development schools, three secondary schools in Amsterdam decided to facilitate teachers in their schools to engage in practice research. This was based on the assumption that research conducted by teachers contributes both to the learning of the teacher researcher and to the learning and development of the school as a whole. Based on this assumption, a parallel study was conducted into the actual contribution made by the teachers' research to individual and collective learning within the school. In this article, we report on the results of this study. After a brief outline of the background to academic training schools in the Netherlands and the objective of the Amsterdam Academic Training School (Academische Opleidingsschool Amsterdam), we will describe the research design, which involved a perception study among the teacher researchers concerned with a focus on individual learning, team learning and organisational learning. The conclusion and subsequent evaluation summarise the results and lessons to be learned in order to stimulate and guarantee a research culture within schools.

The linkage between writing and professional development of teacher educators has hardly been investigated in the past. Our study aims to explore and describe how teacher educators, who wrote and published books in their knowledge domains, with budgetary, professional and institutional support, perceive the experience of writing, and to what extent they view it as contributing to their personal professional development. Eighteen experienced teacher educators, who completed their respective books, were interviewed individually or participated in a focus group discussion, in which they told their stories of writing their own books. The transcriptions of these narratives were analyzed, using both holistic and analytic methods. The findings reveal that although the teacher educators had different motivations for writing and took various paths in their writing, they all view this experience as contributing to them cognitively, emotionally and in practice; teaching nourished their writing but was also influenced by and improved as a result of the writing. We therefore suggest that the notion of writing and publishing books about theoretical knowledge and the practical wisdom of teacher educators become an established practice as a professional development convention for teacher educators. By providing editorial and budgetary support, we can offer the encouragement to teacher educators to make writing and publishing an integral part of their professional undertaking. In this way, we can elevate the academic status of teacher educators and broaden our knowledge on practical and theoretical aspects of teacher education. (Contains 2 notes.)

In this work we study the meaning of professional development as a participative process within a community of practice. In this collaborative narrative self-study we look at the development of ourselves as a professional group working together in an intensive program. The study is based on personal career stories, each told by its author, but once told becoming a chapter in the group's story, to be further analyzed and interpreted by its members. This process revealed four themes that contribute to professional learning experiences constructed within the context of "being" in the team: group diversity, interwoven work, the novice stance and collaborative research. In this paper we discuss our emerging understanding of the significance of the collaborative engagement of teacher educators for the generation of a theory of practice and suggest situating this understanding within a broader ecological perspective using the metaphor of the "edge", a fertile ground for sustainable change and development. ["'Without Stones There Is No Arch': A Study of Professional Development of Teacher Educators as a Team" was written with the collaboration of Adiba Arafat, Dina Friling, Ruth Mansur, Marga Simca, Smadar Tuval and Talia Weinberger.]

With ongoing research assessment in higher education and the introduction of master's-level work in initial teacher education, the growing need for teacher educators to develop research identities is discussed in relation to mentoring and support in two universities. Twelve interviews--with three teacher educators and three research mentors from each university--were carried out, in order to identify effective mentoring practices and other forms of support, as well as any barriers or problems encountered in developing a research profile. An innovative aspect of the methodological approach is that beginning researchers from the teacher education faculty in both universities undertook the interviewing and co-authored the article. The need for an entitlement to and protection of research time is stressed, as well as a range of supportive practices within an active research culture. It is argued that this aspect of teacher educators' professional development requires as much attention as the pedagogical aspects of their role.

This article draws on an analysis of relevant research and an illustrative case study of one teacher educator's learning to debate how well-framed practitioner research might give some ways forward in devising appropriate professional learning provision for teacher educators entering Higher Education from work in schools. One of the starting premises for the writing is that supporting the development of teacher educators as scholars and researchers is an essential part of the professional development of this occupational group. In addition to contributing to the professional learning of individuals, such development is seen as vital for a number of other reasons. These include ensuring thriving teacher education communities, maintaining research-informed teaching in pre- and in-service courses for teachers and contributing to the building of capacity in the broad field of education research. The article raises a number of issues about the long-term value and importance of the proposed type of research as part of teacher educators' induction and professional development, with particular reference to the current situation for educational research in England. (Contains 1 note.)

The present article reports on a case study into the influence and impact of action research carried out by teachers in a special school. The action research was an important component of the two-year, post-initial, in-service course in special educational needs, provided by Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Inclusive and Special Education. From the outset the case study was based on the premise that action research can be seen as a strategy for teacher leadership. Not only was it expected to help teachers to get to grips with their own work in the classroom, it was anticipated that their action research would also have an impact on the work of others in the school. We found that this was indeed the case, provided certain conditions were met. (Contains 2 notes and 2 figures.)

Little is known about the integration of current neuroscience knowledge to classroom teaching, although many teachers rely on neuromyths to shape their pedagogies. Through a professional development approach, the learning study, we explored how teachers learned to apply neuroscience to teaching instruction. The teachers collaborated to design, enact and evaluate neuroscience-framed lessons as part of classroom research. Theories relating to neural plasticity, including the neural network hypothesis for memory and learning, hierarchical relational binding theory, and attention and awareness acted as the theoretical frame for the study. Borrowing phenomenographic methods, we drew on a variety of data sources to construct categories describing the teachers' engagement with neuroscience. Findings highlighted the pivotal role analogies played in the teachers' interpretation of neuroscience content and its application. Through the analogies of the 'rose', 'butcher on the bus', 'deepening the trenches', and 'walking the pathway', we illustrated how teacher learning manifested as the teachers' deepened understandings of knowledge construction, moving away from didactic forms of instruction and increasing the use of multiple modalities, and creating coherent student learning experiences. Findings suggest how neuroscience holds the potential to support teachers' development of theoretical coherence in their understandings of learning and pedagogy. Implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose that the Indigenizing framework of land education in teacher professional development offers an opportunity to engage the epistemological constraints of white settler teachers. Building off the work of teacher education researchers who examine settler epistemic formations in teachers and document the gaps between euroamerican epistemic understandings of place and Indigenous understandings of place we identify axiological innovations in program design that help unsettle teachers' sense of place towards an indigenized framework of relationality. We draw from pre and post survey data collected from teachers that participated in a land education teacher professional development (LETPD) workshop conducted in partnership with a local tribal nation. We identify how settler epistemic positions are expressed, the epistemic gaps produced by settler teachers that prevent them from accessing the full scope of LETPD, and document teacher resistance to relational PD as well as beginning efforts toward transformation. Finally, we propose that future LETPDs work towards encouraging epistemic responsibilities that require deep observation, a disinvestment in western science as the single mode of knowledge, valuing non-western expertise, and a shift from nature as external to being in relation to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dominant paradigm for research on teacher professional development has centred teacher learning as created in and through practice. Critical scholars argue for the need to grapple productively with the complexities of teaching in the power-laden contexts of schooling. This involves continual reflection on the ways that teaching reinforces structural inequalities. We articulate the notion of historical self to describe noticing as ground in both personal and social histories that are situated in hierarchies of power and dominant ideologies. We draw on data from a three year, multi-site project that engaged teachers, community members, and researchers in co-developing a noticing for re-humanising framework. Through the narrative of Shannon, a project participant-researcher, we illuminate as part of the historical self: (1) the interconnectedness of both personal and social histories in and through moment-to-moment interactions and their relation to what and how we notice; (2) the vulnerability embedded in rupturing embedded assumptions in these histories, and (3) the importance of understanding what we do not notice, as tied to our privilege. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesson Study is a professional development program, which engages teachers in a collaborative and long-term lesson planning process aimed at improving a single or a group of lessons. In the process, teachers may feel that they are offered three different types of support: social, emotional, and instructional. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of those supports received during Lesson Study. Specifically, this study focuses on teachers' perceptions of the supports they experienced while working in a Lesson Study group, and the extent to which teachers' perceived supports differed when participating in Lesson Study in-person and then via video. Furthermore, perceptions of supports were investigated based on modalities, and whether or not the Lesson Study was single-school based or cross-school based teams. Findings from this study revealed that participants did feel socially, emotionally and instructionally supported during Lesson Study, and felt higher levels of support during in-person Lesson Study, in comparison to a video-based Lesson Study iteration. Additionally, the results suggest that levels of perceived support did not vary based on being single-school-based or cross-school-based Lesson Study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Netherlands, academically oriented programmes for primary teacher education have recently been established. The aim of this study is to provide insight in the extent to which graduates from these academically oriented programmes are involved in different forms of inquiry-based working and which factors promote or hinder this involvement. Interviews with 10 academically educated teachers and their school leaders and observations of team meetings were used for this exploratory study. Three forms of inquiry-based working could be distinguished; systematic reflection, using research and conducting research. For most teachers, systematic reflection was part of their daily practice and most teachers made use of research; only a minority was involved in conducting research. Factors like ownership and the role of the teacher in the team were related to teachers' involvement in inquiry-based working. Teachers with a formal research function in inquiry-based working in their schools appeared to be more involved in inquiry-based working, especially in conducting research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this comparative qualitative study is on female teachers’ experiences as teacher researchers in Canada and Turkey as they worked towards the completion of their postgraduate degrees in the midst of teaching full-time. Attending carefully to participants’ accounts of time use during the research process revealed heavy time pressure as informed by teaching, societal norms and familial obligations. In response to complex schedules, participants engaged in multitasking and research engagement happened amongst multiple personal and professional responsibilities. The findings of this study provide new ways to consider the competing demands shaping women’s efforts to professionally develop and learn, and question the sustainability of teacher-led research as a sustainable professional learning endeavour beyond postgraduate studies [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper argues the need for coherent, holistic frameworks offering insightful understandings as well as viable, connected and synergistic solutions to schools in addressing pressing problems arising from the acknowledged gaps between research, practice and professional development. There is a need to conceptualise a comprehensive conceptual framework that rationalises, constructs and connects salient professional development concepts and practices fit for purpose in twenty-first-century schools. Specifically, three themes conceptualise existing problems faced by schools and their possible solutions: first, bridging the research–policy–practice gap by mobilising knowledge more effectively through knowledge producers and consumers working collaboratively; second, valuing and integrating both tacit knowledge and academic coded knowledge; and third, raising the professionalism and reflectivity of teachers and leaders. However, a new organisational and human infrastructure is needed to enable these solutions to be realised in school practice. Arguably, three responses are critical to this challenge of knowledge mobilisation; all are achievable through the powerful unifying concept of the ‘research-engaged school’. The three responses are: research engagement on the part of all teachers and leaders; creating schools and school networks as professional learning communities; and adopting a workable methodology (namely, research–design–development) for teachers and leaders to put research into practice and tailor innovations to specific school contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The diversification of settings in which higher education is delivered has resulted in a growing proportion of lecturers entering teaching from professional backgrounds. This is a challenging transition as lecturers are rarely given the space to consider the implications of this move on their identities and practice styles. Writing is recognised as a powerful methodology through which individuals can make sense of experiences and conceptualise them in light of historical, theoretical and social perspectives. In this paper we consider the experiences of 10 college lecturers who used writing to explore this transition as part of a professional development initiative to promote their writing skills. They were providing higher education in further education colleges across South West England. This project ran over two years, involving a year-long professional development intervention and a subsequent evaluation. Over this time the lecturers produced a number of written pieces. We present the different styles and forms of writing used, and how these engaged with their emergent voices and growing sense of legitimacy. We highlight how writing can provide a reflexive medium and assist in the identification of developmental goals, something particularly valuable during professional transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores the experiences of 14 early years educators who participated in a continuing professional development (CPD) programme coordinated by two of the paper’s authors. The programme was part of a three-year research project, which aimed at introducing early childhood educators to an inquiry-based approach to mathematics and science education and involved participants as teacher-researchers and curriculum-makers in cycles of action research. From this CPD experience, teachers appeared to reconceptualize traditional teacher and researcher ‘roles’ in more fluid and equitable ways, leading us to explore characteristics of the programme conducive to this shift. The main data source comprised teacher interviews, supplemented by video-recordings of group meetings, classroom enactment of activities and the facilitators’ field notes. Findings suggest that the shift was encouraged by the gradual formation of a community of practice; a reconceptualization of the ‘practical’; and the epistemology-oriented approach adopted in mathematics and science education. The discussion highlights the implications of these findings for early years educators’ professional development, and the problems of the ‘theory–practice’ divide in such development. Furthermore, the discussion stresses the importance of the socio-cultural context in which such projects take place, particularly as these often draw heavily upon international literature. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Teachers’ professional learning can be enhanced by positioning teachers as practitioner researchers and professionals who are capable of generating change within their local educational communities. In this article a teacher’s story is used to show how teacher knowledge was developed and how teachers designed research questions, gathered evidence about their teaching and used this evidence to inform their practice and have a positive impact on their students’ learning. The article then presents a mapping of elements of professional learning that became apparent in one professional learning program in which teachers were given space to develop skills to research their everyday practice; skills that they can continue to use to refine their practice as teachers in the future. A mapping of the elements that contributed to the overall effectiveness of the professional learning program is presented to contribute to the debate surrounding the characteristics of effective professional learning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As part of a government-initiated programme based on the concept of professional development schools, three secondary schools in Amsterdam decided to facilitate teachers in their schools to engage in practice research. This was based on the assumption that research conducted by teachers contributes both to the learning of the teacher researcher and to the learning and development of the school as a whole. Based on this assumption, a parallel study was conducted into the actual contribution made by the teachers’ research to individual and collective learning within the school. In this article, we report on the results of this study. After a brief outline of the background to academic training schools in the Netherlands and the objective of the Amsterdam Academic Training School (Academische Opleidingsschool Amsterdam), we will describe the research design, which involved a perception study among the teacher researchers concerned with a focus on individual learning, team learning and organisational learning. The conclusion and subsequent evaluation summarise the results and lessons to be learned in order to stimulate and guarantee a research culture within schools. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Teacher inquiry is a powerful professional development method for teachers to direct their own learning and focus on the particular needs of their own classroom. Yet, the study of effective professional development must broaden its focus beyond what skills and content teachers must acquire to consider how to best facilitate teachers' learning and empower them as professionals. This qualitative study examines the pedagogy of facilitation by following the experiences of six first-time teacher inquirers and the veteran facilitator that guided them through the inquiry process. The results shed light on the various stages of participants' experiences and the facilitation methods that proved effective at each stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways in which school teachers and university faculty can work together for the purposes of school reform, professional development and educational research. The paper describes the ongoing interactions between teachers and university personnel in two sites in Australia. Each case considers the ways in which the interaction between teachers and academics contributed to the nature of professional learning for all participants, and transcended some of the boundaries between school and university. We argue that the exchange of ideas across institutional boundaries is an important condition of professional learning within partnerships, and that the negotiation and codification of knowledge serves important research and practice purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]