Teachers’ Learning: Committed and Resilient Teachers are More Effective Practitioners

This paper draws from and presents an analytical summary of the findings of seven UK-based teacher education projects funded by the ESRC ‘Teaching and Learning Research Programme’ (TLRP), which the author was the principal investigator for one and a co-participant in another. Different in design and methodology, the projects point to the roles of teachers in promoting a range of learning outcomes. Together they illuminate phases of teachers’ lives, work and careers exploring matters such as, their values and dispositions towards teaching and learning, classroom practices and wider societal and policy contexts which impact on what they do. In turn, this sheds light on the formation and re-formation of teacher identity and professional knowledge over time, that is, to recognize the stages and phases of teachers’ work and lives.