Professional Control and Professional Learning

Abstract

The two teachers quoted above illustrate the classic dichotomy of not only educational policy, but also approaches to teacher professional learning, as government/school boards vie with classroom teachers over the best ways to improve student performance. To understand trends in professional development policy in Canada, it is critical to grasp the nature of the organizations to which Canadian teachers belong, the struggle for control of the profession which characterized the 1990s and early 2000s, and the emerging consensus over the value to both teachers and students of ongoing job-embedded professional learning. Two Ontario programs, the New Teacher Induction (NIP) program and the Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP), are described here to exemplify how recommendations from various experts around the world can be implemented, in an atmosphere of collaboration, not conflict, between government and teacher unions.