Abstract:

Not only global policies and economic fluctuations have influences on teachers` professional development, but also local sociocultural elements and national educational reforms have impact on teachers learning experiences.

In Estonia (as former Post-Soviet country) education system experienced a change of ideology, decentralization and pluralisation. The majority in-service teachers in Estonia started work in a different social system. Therefore the importance of social learning emerges in teachers` learning experiences and professional development.

Estonian school teachers, who started their work during the social reforms, perceive their learning as continuous process when (why) experiences in school context and contacts within local teaching community are more important than broader social context. The social changes were reflected more in changes of teaching related routines and less in professional identity. Therefore we can presume that different teachers with different preparation and different work profile have different learning pattern.

The aim of the current study is to analyse how teachers from different educational level (preschool and school) with a different form of preparation (BA and MA level) describe and perceive their professional learning experiences since the neoliberal educational reform started.

25 Estonian pre-school teachers and school teachers (graduated in 1990-1995) participated. Semi-structured interview, based on concept of social learning [1] was used. Data was analysed by components of social learning (community, practice, belonging, and identity).

The results revealed that changes in society cause frictions in education, but those changes are not reflected in different Estonian teachers´ learning experiences as strong as expected. In general, both groups of teachers (pre-school and school teachers) described their learning through practice and experiences. The professional community had influential role in school teachers learning, but preschool teachers were more oriented to practice. Nevertheless teachers had different experiences with involvement of colleagues and they also perceived the learning community and social inclusion differently. For school teachers the influential source of social learning was collaboration with colleagues and for preschool teachers, social learning involved mainly learning from children.

The results point on tendency to avoid broader context of learning during educational reforms. As close professional relationships are more in focus for teachers, the importance of supportive teaching and learning community within the working place during frictions in society can be underlined.

References:
[1] Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice : Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Keywords:

Teachers` professional learning, neoliberal reforms, pre-school and school teachers.