Innovating Teacher Development: Transformative Teacher Education Through Classroom Inquiry

Abstract

In this chapter I argue that the approaches still widely used in language teacher education contexts are underpinned by “thing” or content-based conceptualisations, leading to forms of teacher education that, because they are essentially transmissive, place teachers in passive roles subject to externally driven accountability. In contrast, notions such as teacher learning and teacher exploration/inquiry entail “being” or person-based conceptualisations that are transformative, in that they place teachers in agentive roles, where accountability is internally-motivated. I develop this proposition by drawing on two short descriptive cases of action research initiatives I have been involved in over the last 6 years and discuss why they can be considered to represent innovations in teacher education.