A metasynthesis of Professional Development School scholarship: lessons for teacher education

Purpose This metasynthesis of Professional Development Schools (PDS) scholarship focuses on research that examines PDS as an entity – a systemic, multifaceted innovation that builds on and affects multiple dimensions of teaching and learning across educational contexts. Design/methodology/approach We contextualize our work within scholarship that documents the challenges and affordances of PDS, discuss previous reviews of PDS scholarship and describe our methodological metasynthesis. Findings Among our significant findings was the surprisingly small number of studies (n = 4) that focused on PDS as a layered entity. Other significant findings related to the lack of attention to cultural and linguistic diversity in comprehensive studies of PDS spaces and the methodological limits of much PDS research. We highlight the importance of circulating and boundary-spanning leadership, evolving collaboration and peer learning, challenges and benefits due to the complexity of PDS spaces and few efforts to directly measure PDS effectiveness. Research limitations/implications With our focus on peer-reviewed research articles, we may have overlooked book-length reports, which may have contributed to our analysis. Further, the PDS spaces described in our sample were relatively new (i.e. operating for five years at most); more established sites deserve detailed researcher attention. Practical implications We call for: (1) multidimensional analyses involving various PDS participants and varied data sources, (2) mixed-methods studies that merge quantitative measures with rich ethnographic data and (3) longitudinal approaches to explore PDS spaces over time to learn about the formation and sustenance of PDS spaces as well as threats to sustainability. Social implications We advocate for: (1) teams of researchers using parallel methods to document activities within and across PDS spaces and (2) systemic attention to community voices and equity practices in PDS spaces. Originality/value To counter the tendency for PDS scholarship to focus on logistics and implementation, we engaged in a metasynthesis of PDS research to explore PDS as an entity – a systemic, multi-faceted innovation that builds on and affects multiple dimensions of teaching and learning. We found very few studies that met these criteria.