Highlighting the role of teachers in school change, Teacher Agency, Professional Development and School Improvement explores the important related issues of professional identity, teacher self-efficacy, leadership and autonomy in the context of contested improvement agendas. Providing analytical frameworks and practical models, this book: Offers examples of projects, programmes and narratives to illustrate the role of teachers in school change Invites readers to reconceptualise professional development and re-imagine school improvement Focuses on enabling teacher agency as the foundation for improvement Emphasises the importance of human agency to influence environments, lives and learning Provides strategies for improvement with integrity amidst powerful accountability requirements and external forces for change. At the heart of this book is a fresh perspective on schooling, in which teacher agency is considered a fundamental dimension of professional development and key to school improvement. This raises necessary and challenging questions about purposes and processes in education. With practical ideas and strategies that can be used to inform and evaluate practice and policy, Teacher Agency, Professional Development and School Improvement is essential reading for headteachers and teachers wishing to lead changes to improve their school and for teacher educators who support them. Contents: List of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 "... a difference needs to be made" Chapter 2 Improving Schools in Context Chapter 3 Professional Development, Identity and Agency Chapter 4 The Role of Teachers in Changing Schools Chapter 5 Leading School Cultures to Support Teacher Agency Chapter 6 An Agentic Framework for Education Chapter 7 Agency in Action: Participation and Voice Chapter 8 Agency for Sustainable Futures Index Author Biography: Judy Durrant is Head of Postgraduate Programmes in the Faculty of Education, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

A fresh look at school improvement from the perspective of professional development. Written to aid teachers in taking the initiative in identifying areas in need of improvement and finding ways of making the necessary changes.

Shows how to support teachers' leadership of school change. Within a theoretical and policy context, this book: gives practical guidance for integrating inquiry with practice; shows how to encourage collaboration and critical dialogue within and between schools; and, focusses on pupil, teacher and organizational learning.

The book explores and analyses, from a variety of conceptual perspectives, the encounters with self and others that professional doctorate programmes in education both necessitate and enable. It documents the ways in which professional identities, bodies of knowledge and practices are thereby challenged, renegotiated and strengthened.