The Continuous Professional Development

of Public Elementary Teachers

(Qualitative Study)

Prepared by:
Kim Harvey N. Dela Salde
MAEE-1
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What are the reasons why professional development should be seen in the public
elementary teachers?

2. What are the nature and effect of professional development initiatives needed for public
teachers to provide quality teaching?

3. How can professional development continually help the public elementary teachers in
their educational and professional growth?
 THEORETICAL LENS

The theoretical underpinning of this study derives from Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget, a
psychological constructivist, argues that learners construct knowledge by transforming,
organising and re-organising previous knowledge. Vygotsky, a social constructivist, believes that
opportunities should be provided to learners so that they are able to construct knowledge and
understanding through social interaction (Kalpana, 2014:27). According to Richardson
(2003:1625), both social and psychological approaches to constructivism assume that knowledge
or meaning is actively constructed in the human mind. Social constructivism focuses on how
formal knowledge is shaped within power, economic, social and political forces. The
psychological approach to constructivism focuses on the manner in which meaning is 16
generated within the individual mind and, more recently, how shared meaning is developed
within a group context.

Constructivist theory has a rich history, initiated by John Dewey in his progressive
models for teaching and learning (Dewey, 1916; 1933; 1938). At the start of the 20th century,
Dewey generated justifiable theory for learner-centred education based on pragmatic philosophy.
Constructivism is a learning theory, not a teaching theory (Richardson, 2003). It has implications
for how teachers approach their teaching. Teachers need to understand how to incorporate
constructivist teaching methods, strategies, tools and practices in order to ensure an effective
environment for learning (Powell & Kalina, 2009:241). Constructivism is a theory that assists
teachers to understand how learners gain knowledge: this guides the way teachers approach their
teaching. From a constructivist perspective, teachers need to model suitable conduct, guide
learners in their activities and provide different types of examples rather than falling back on
outmoded teaching methods that focus on telling and directing (Sparks, 1994:27).
 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Professional development (PD), is an integral part of the life of schools and teachers. It is
an important mechanism to ensure educational reform and improvement in school settings.
However, different viewpoints and perspectives on PD occur, with considerable tension between
advocates of PD for broad, systemic and PD for more localized, profession oriented purposes
(Day & Sachs, 2004). Different perspectives on PD, and tensions between these perspectives, are
important because they influence the nature of the education promoted in school settings
(Bolam & McMahon, 2004).

In this study, I investigated the viewpoints on PD of a group of senior educators in Mati

City during a period of significant educational reform. I drew upon interviews with a variety of
senior educators during a period of intense interest in improving, inter alia, students’ literacy and
numeracy outcomes. These educators with considerable experience of PD included provincial
educational administrators, principals, and academics. I used Bourdieu’s (1990a, 1998) theory of
practice to interpret the viewpoints of these educators and to make sense of their viewpoints in
light of current understanding of the different perspectives on PD. BOURDIEU’S APPROACH
For Bourdieu (1990a), social practices are a product of power relations between individuals and
groups who compete with one another over specific, valued resources.

As a result of these struggles, practices exhibit their own peculiar characteristics, or

“logics.” These practices, never static, are the product of a constant state of tension between
these competing positions and dispositions. Practices are hierarchical and exist in a contested
either dominant or subordinate – relationship with one another. This contestation occurs
within specific social spaces, or “fields,” of practice, and characterizes these individual fields
(Bourdieu, 1990a, 1990b, 1998). For Bourdieu (1990b), fields and their stakes are “. . . produced
as such by relations of power and struggle in order to transform the power relations that are
constitutive of the field”. Fields are characterized by a constant process of competition over the
stakes to be.
 The Good Thing of

Parent-Teacher Partnership
(Qualitative Study)

Prepared by:
Kim Harvey N. Dela Salde
MAEE-1
 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is role and function of parent-teacher partnership to the learners and to the school?

2. What are the effects of having good partnership of the teacher and parents to the performance
of the learner?

3. How can parent-teacher partnership contribute to the improvement of the school?

 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Most teachers think about having a good relationship with parents. However, just as
images of teaching and learning environments vary, so do images of “good” parent-teacher
relationships. At one end of the spectrum, the image of a good relationship is an effective
separation of roles and functions between home and school, an optimal social distance combined
with mutual respect. The family meets the school’s expectations efficiently, and the school
effectively educates the child without undue demands on the home (Henry, 1996; Epstein, 1995;
Powell, 1989; Lortie, 1975). The degree of success that teachers have in developing a partnership
with parents depends heavily on the fit between parental cares and concerns and those of the
teacher. Unlike many other kinds of relationships in people’s lives, the parent-teacher pairing
occurs by assignment rather than choice.

The research described above tells us that effective parent-teacher relations are founded
on the understanding of the unique elements of the parents and teachers’ roles and how they
complement each other and subsequent modifications of their roles growing out of negotiations
that reflect the unique needs of both parent and teacher. In effective partnerships, parents and
teachers educate each other during open two-way communication. Each point of view enlightens
the other. “Mutually responsive relationships seem more likely to flourish if such programs focus
more on the interconnectedness of parents and teachers through their mutual commitment to
children and on exploring ways to enhance and celebrate this connectedness” (Sumsion, 1999).

If these effective partnerships are to develop, the literature also tells us to be cognizant of
the factors described earlier and recognize (1) the diversity in teachers’ and parents’ cultures and
values including their backgrounds, race, ethnic group, socioeconomic class, and educational
level; forces such as technology, workplace characteristics, and changing family structures; and
influences on teachers’ and parents’ enactment of their roles including how they construct their
roles, their sense of efficacy, their expectations and personal attributes, and their communication
styles.
 THEORETICAL LENS

Ecological Systems Perspective

The ecology of human development involves the scientific study of the progressive,
mutual accommodation between an active growing human being and the changing properties of
the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by
relations between these settings and by the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded”
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 21). The ecological environment, according to this theory, consists of
a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls. At the innermost level
is the immediate setting containing the developing person. This microsystem concerns relations
between the person and his or her immediate environment. The next circle, the mesosystem,
represents the relation between the settings in which the developing person participates (e.g.,
work and home, home and school). The third level, the exosystem, refers to one or more settings
that affect the person but do not contain the person (e.g., workplace or church). The final level,
the macrosystem, refers to values, laws, and customs of the culture that influence all the lower
orders (see Figure 2). Within this theoretical structure, there is interconnectedness both within
and between the settings (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 8).

Social System Perspective

Just as the ecological perspective helps remind us of the complexity of the individuals, in
this case the teacher and including the present challenges to building and bridging the partnership
above. The next circle represents the mesosytem where the adults interact within the school
bringing what they have experienced with them. The two outer circles, exosystem and
macrosystem, represent the societal influences of the more distant environments and contexts
including workplaces, laws, and customs. This adaptation of Bronfenbrenner’s model helps us to
see the complexity of the teacher-as-person and the parent-as-person, and the skill that is
required to bridge the differences that exist. The parent teacher pairing occurs by assignment.
Their common interest is the child. Though the child only appears in this figure within this
proposed model, the child is a variable that is pervasive. How parent and teacher come together
over their common interest in that child is influenced not only by the mitigating personal and
social factors but also by how they each interact with the child, and their feelings with regard to
that child. Recall that in the role description the parent focuses on her child, and the teacher must
view the child as an individual but also part of the class (Sumsion, 1999).