Education reform, enquiry-based learning and the re-professionalization of teachers

Abstract

This article explores the implications for teacher education and continuous professional development (CPD) of enquiry-based learning, by drawing specifically on data collected during a four-year curriculum development and research project, Enquiring Minds (2005–9). Within the partnership approach to curriculum design endorsed by the project, teachers need to demonstrate commitment to the personal narratives of those they teach. Participating teachers have experienced this shift in their practice as a challenge both to their established routines and to their own professional narratives. Furthermore, it has become evident that adopting enquiry-based practices is at least partly influenced by teachers' own narrative pathways and professional biographies. In particular, some teachers have interpreted their renewed role as preparing children for a 'high skills' new media age, while others have developed a more child-centred focus that draws on their own prior experiences of informal youth work and volunteering. The focus will therefore be on teacher re-professionalisation in the context of enquiry learning as well as in a policy context where child-centred 'enquiry-based learning' and a 'high skills' economy are in a taut relationship.