“I speak prose and I now know it.” Personal development trajectories among teacher educators in a professional development community

This study explores trajectories of professional growth by teacher educators participating in a professional development community on teaching thinking. Qualitative measures revealed a four stage model of personal professional trajectories: anticipation/curiosity, withdrawal, awareness and change. The model delineates passages traversed by teacher educators grappling with complexities and challenges of an engaging professional development experience in a communal context. All participants followed the same four staged trajectory though individuals were located at different points on the path. Findings lend support to the nonlinear view of professional development, illustrating Kinchin and Cabot’s (2010) paradigm of backwards and forwards movements along career paths.

► Teacher educators experience professional growth along predictable trajectories. ► We studied growth in a professional development community on thinking education. ► Trajectory stages are anticipation/curiosity, withdrawal, awareness and change. ► All teachers entered withdrawal; most emerged to further professional development. ► Development was found to be dynamic and non linear.