Is epistemic orientation the chicken or the egg in professional development for knowledge generation approaches?

Abstract

Professional development has been marginally successful at encouraging the knowledge generation approaches promoted in international education policy. To explore whether increased attention to teachers' epistemic orientations might suggest necessary innovations to existing professional development routines, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods analysis was conducted inside a three-year professional development program for in-service elementary science teachers in two U.S. states. Findings suggest that teachers' epistemic orientations influenced their willingness to engage with knowledge generation approaches, challenge teacher educators’ claims, and implement knowledge generation approaches in their classrooms, indicating an interrelated relationship between these factors. Implications for professional development design and recruitment are discussed.