Unravelling effective professional development: a rhizomatic inquiry into coaching and the active ingredients of teacher learning

Abstract

Teacher professional development (PD) is about change. One of the most prominent lines of research on PD addresses what makes it an effective change process. This research produces critical features of effective PD, the seemingly active ingredients of teacher change that are meant to guide professionals in the design, implementation, and evaluation of PD programmes. Embedded within this research is a linear, hierarchical, causal mono-logic model that is the hallmark of Western rational thought. Rhizomatic thought, with its non-linear perspectives, offers a contrast, highlighting the unpredictable multiplicity of complex systems that embrace the emergent dynamics of becoming and hybridity. In this paper, we look at features of effective PD through a rhizomatic lens, with a focus on PD as mapping and tracing. Drawing on vignettes from five case studies from a year-long pedagogical coaching PD programme, we explore how effective features of PD can be unravelled in practice and rewoven into vibrant hybridity within real-world school contexts.