Abstract:

Over the years the concept of professional development for teachers has known different meanings. But regardless of the theories and models related to the professional development of teachers, there has been an increasing perception of professional development as a transformative process capable of improving teaching practices through collaborative enquiry by teachers (Uwamariya & Mukamurera, 2005). As part of a professional development program implemented through various educational reforms in Ontario, Canada, teachers were encouraged to reflect critically on their practices and to share with their peers the results of their questioning. This reflective process focussed on the need for teachers to respond to their students’ learning. For Darling Hammond (2006), a teacher is a reflective practitioner and strategic policy maker who understands the learning process and is able to use a wide repertoire of teaching strategies to enable students to master content presenting considerable challenges. Upstream of this process of reflection is collaborative enquiry, a process that allows teachers to examine by collective dialogue not only the differences between a real situation and a desired situation, but also the strategies to be put in place to ensure the success of their students. By this process teachers become researcher-educators who question and critically evaluate their actions in order to improve their practices (Darling-Hammond & Brantford, 2005). The paper will present the results of collaborative enquiry by French teachers in Ontario, Canada. At the initiative of the Ministry of Education in Ontario, 75 classroom teachers from 12 French school boards have documented their reflective practice through collaborative enquiry. They went beyond the process of enquiry by developing their own theories of action towards their questioning, their teaching practices, their collaboration, their challenges and their successes. Their experience can be described as collaborative research that can inspire other educators and build capacity for educational innovation.

Keywords:

Professional development, teaching practices, transformative change, reflective practitioners, collaborative research.