Abstract

In a 2016 special issue of the Wales Journal of Education focused on professional learning for teachers, the editors concluded: If Wales is to create a successful and equitable education system in the future, it seems clear that one of the key factors in this will be ongoing work to improve the quality of teaching in our schools and professional learning has a critically important part to play in achieving this. (Egan and Grigg, 2016: 10) The recent national mission articulated by the Welsh Government includes a central commitment to reforming and improving teachers' professional development from initial teacher education through to continuing professional learning, leadership development and schools as learning organisations (Education Wales/Welsh Government, 2017). To contribute to continuing dialogue and actions for school leadership and teachers' professional learning in Wales, this article explores the international research concerning the significance of professional learning to teacher development, the features of effective professional learning and how school leaders' leadership can support teachers' professional learning. Drawing on data from a large international study of professional learning in Canada (Campbell et al., 2016, 2017), we offer some discussion of what may be considerations for continuing developments in supporting school leaders' and teachers' professional learning in Wales. However, as Egan and Grigg (2016) also cautioned against, the intent of reviewing the international research literature is not to propose that existing policies should be 'borrowed' and applied unilaterally to Wales. As we have argued in our work in our home country of Canada, 'there is no one size fits all approach to professional learning for teachers and nor should there be' (Campbell et al., 2017: 41). Rather, the intention is to discuss the existing evidence concerning professional learning to inform conversations, debates and potential contextualisation, adaptation or rejection in the context of Wales nationally and for the diversity of schools, professionals, students and communities locally.

How to Cite:

Campbell, C. & Osmond-Johnson, P., (2018) “Leading Teachers' Professional Learning and Development for Outstanding Teaching”, Wales Journal of Education 20(2), 35-62. doi: https://doi.org/10.16922/wje.20.2.4