Bridging the gap: investigating teachers' perceptions of professional development and the role of the university

Abstract

Although professional development in Australian schools is often part of the mandatory requirement for teachers to remain current with policies, practices and pedagogy, some teachers question the relevance of such programs. As Lieberman and McLaughlin (1992) note, many teachers are critical of conventional staff development ventures with workplace driven in-services traditionally being met with ‘aversion’. The perception that such professional development is of limited worth is exacerbated by the very universality of an experience that often sees an entire staff ‘complete’ many hours of passive learning with little apparent relevance to the core business of teaching. At least some of these criticisms can be addressed with the forging of mutually beneficial relationships between schools and universities. Professional development programs run by universities expose teachers, who can feel isolated from educational developments as they grapple with the minutia of a school day, to modern educational thinking. The university lecturers maintain links with the practical application of their research, ensuring that they remain credible experts to successive generations of pre-service teachers. The value of establishing communities of practice, particularly during initial teacher training, between the school in which pre-service teachers undertake practicum, and the university cannot be underestimated. This paper discusses the experiences of two teachers, one working in the school system and the other in the university system in Australia, and their perception of the role of the university in the professional development area. Narrative inquiry methodology has been utilised to provide important insights into the researcher participants’ experiences of professional development in the school and university sector. The findings reveal that there is a disjuncture between the culture of the school and university which are important to their survival but nevertheless also results in partnerships which need to be consistently reviewed.