Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2010
Abstract
This study descriptively compares international social contexts for teacher workplace informal professional learning from the teachers’ perspectives. Set in elementary schools in the U.S. and Lithuania, the study illustrates how teachers make sense of and engage in learning within the historical, political and administrative contexts within which they work. A sociocultural framework brings into view different opportunities for teacher informal learning. These appear in teachers’ discourse about their schools’ missions, building structures, classroom environments, organizational arrangements, traditions, and professional relationships as referenced in teachers’ discourse. The study argues for the importance of acknowledging teacher informal learning as a method of career-long professional development and for considering how to build and sustain the infrastructure necessary to maintain such development at teachers’ work places.
Recommended Citation
Jurasaite-Harbison, E., & Rex, L. A. (2010). School cultures as contexts for informal teacher learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 267-277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.03.012
Included in
Curriculum and Instruction Commons, International and Comparative Education Commons, Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons
Comments
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.03.012