The day-to-day work of primary school teachers: a source of professional learning

Teachers are an important influence on students’ learning, and therefore the opportunity for teachers to learn and develop is something of interest to educators internationally. This article reports on a research project involving six primary school teachers who participated in one-on-one and small group interviews to explore the opportunities for professional learning bound up in their daily work in classrooms. The findings highlight that teachers’ day-to-day stories are a source of professional learning. These stories are uniquely contextualised within diverse classrooms and schools. When teachers tell a story they use narrative to capture and structure their experiences, describe the specific details of the teaching situation and explain the reasons behind the actions and decisions taken during practice. What teachers learn from interpreting their narratives is as varied and infinite as the experiences from which they are created. The way the everyday is organised and interpreted by teachers in schools and classrooms is something to which policy-makers and school administrators should be very attentive because it can make a positive difference to both student and teacher learning.