Cand.Philol. Kristin Helstad's dissertation for the degree of Ph.D.

The titel of the dissertation is:

Knowledge development among teachers in upper secondary schools. A study of a school development project on writing in and across disciplines.

The importance of teachers’ knowledge development is described as particularly important when it comes to contributing to student learning. This study provides insight and understandings of how experienced teachers in an upper secondary school create knowledge about writing in the disciplines through a school development project stemming from regular meetings in an interdisciplinary team of teachers over a two year period. The study combines analyses of the development of knowledge with the relational dynamics which unfold between the teacher community and the principal of the school during the course of their project. Further, the study analyses the contribution and involvement of external experts. The theoretical framework is based on sociocultural perspectives and an interaction analytical approach where observations and recordings of conversations in meetings, supplemented by interviews and logs, form the data corpus. The findings show how the long-term dialogue in the community, based on student data that teachers bring to the community for joint exploration, seems to be the driving force for knowledge creation and development of new thoughts and practices. Thus, the analysis illuminates how the shape, focus and the mediating function of the dialogue turns out to be significant. Developing new understandings is identified when teachers investigate the unknown and confirm what known and valid knowledge is and thus ensuring a productive balance between exploration and confirmation, combined with professional judgment. The analysis reveals that tensions related to institutional features, traditions of professional cultures and challenges related to the relational work of professionals in schools influence teachers’ work as well as the conditions for professional learning.  The study shows that when teachers are supported and challenged by their colleagues and external participants, and when they experience tensions between stability and renewal, they are encouraged to search for new knowledge. Hence, the study also shows the importance of leadership for teachers’ knowledge development and professional learning over time. Possible implications relate to how workplace learning in schools is organised, how teacher education is designed, and how collaboration between schools and universities can be developed.

The study draws on educational and didactical theory, where theories of professional learning, school leadership and perspectives of how teachers’ different subject background as well as communicative and institutional practices in schools creates conditions for professional learning. The work is financially supported by the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, University of Oslo.       

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Publisert 2. sep. 2013 11:45