School of Education

(Collaborative) Professional Enquiry:

orientation and methodology

Valerie Drew and Morag Redford

A University of Stirling Cross-Departmental workshop

‘Doing Action Research with Professionals in Organization:

Professional Learning and Organizational Change

February 2011

 

Professional Education Programmes • The Professional Education Team at the Stirling Institute of Education believes that educational

processes and practices inevitably raise questions about direction and purpose. This is why practitioners must be able to make situated judgements about what is educationally desirable. Moreover, they should be able to justify their judgements and decisions to a range of different stakeholders, including students, parents, colleagues and the wider professional community.

• Our programmes are framed by the methodology of Professional Enquiry. Professional Enquiry is a form of collaborative professional learning that is central to being and becoming a responsive and responsible educational professional.

• Through our postgraduate programmes, consultancy, and the activities of the Professional Enquiry network, we aim to provide spaces where educational professionals can work on the development of their own practices through:

– participation in professional dialogue about their own and others’ experiences, views, and values;– engagement with new ideas, theories and practices; and– developing, trialling, monitoring and evaluating new forms of professional action and educational practice.

• Professional Enquiry is consistent with an activist professionalism whereby practitioners contribute to the improvement of education for all, building on their knowledge and understanding, and using their judgement in a responsive and responsible manner informed by the values of inclusion and social justice.

Defining Professional Enquiry

• It can be conceived in three broad senses– Technical– An orientation to practice– A collective and interactive process

(I’Anson et al. 2008, p.73)

Technical

• An identifiable series of events driven by discussion between enquirers and the context of enquiry

• Practitioners identify problems in practice, trial solutions and incorporate what they judge to be beneficial strategies as part of their professional repertoire

An orientation to practice

• A way of being a practitioner, a professional disposition

• Enacting a professional duty to seek to increase the good of the practice you are engaged in

• Questioning, discussing, seeking ways to improve practice become ethical and political obligations

A collective and interactive process

• Professional growth and development as socio-cultural

• Enquiry can only lead to sustainable professional growth if questions are asked and responded to in the context of joint practice within and across various spaces of activity

Professional Enquiry

an approach to classroom practice offers an opportunity for teachers to develop their self-confidence and to exercise agency by trialling new ideas and approaches and engaging directly with current trends in professional practice (Reeves at al., 2008: p.29) .

Professional Enquiry – 3 phases

Dissemination

Dilemmas and deliberations…

EthicsProfessional / Research Politics politics

Collaboration Resourcing

Impact

Authenticity

Professional learning

Risk

Sustainability