development of experienced teachers and a different approach to the development
of these teachers is needed. The purpose of the project,Accomplished Teaching
(Forde and McMahon 2011 ) was to explore the issue of the development of
accomplished teaching across an educational system.
6.5 The Concept of Accomplished Teaching
The origins of the project on accomplished teaching werefirstly, in a series of
research studies (McMahon and Reeves 2007 ) on the role and impact of the
chartered teachers in Scotland and secondly, in a series of symposia that brought
together stakeholders in Scotland with international partners including academics
and professional associations to examine the issues related to the recognition and
development of expertise and accomplishment in teaching. This model of drawing
together academics and professional groups was used as the basis for the project on
Accomplished Teachers and Teaching. Two International Symposiums on
Developing Accomplished Teachers and Teaching (ISAT&T) (June 2010 and
September 2012) brought together researchers, teacher educators, policy makers
and teaching councils drawn from England, Australia, Wales, USA, New Zealand
and Scotland. A key outcome of the symposia was to inform thinking in Scotland
on the development of accomplished teaching. Among others, two key issues
emerged in this discussionfirstly, the concept of accomplished teaching and the
issue of the development of accomplished teaching and a teaching career (Forde
and McMahon 2011 ).
The term of ‘accomplished teaching’ was used in the first Standard for
Chartered Teacher(General Teaching Council Scotland 2002 : 3):
Accomplished teaching of the kind reflected in the Standard for Chartered Teacher is
teaching in which four central values and commitments permeate the work of the teacher in
the classroom, the school, and beyond. The Chartered Teacher will be effective in pro-
moting learning and committed to the development of all forms of professional action.In this standard four central values characterised a Chartered Teacher and in these
we can see a form of the extended professionalism: effectiveness in promoting
learning in the classroom; critical self-evaluation and development; collaboration
and influence and educational and social values. However, the term‘accomplished’
did not gain any real currency in Scottish education where, as we have seen, debates
focussed on the role and impact of the chartered teacher.
One of the tensions is using a mandated programme where the outcomes are
shaped a professional standard while at the same time fostering a transformational
process of engaging in coherent and critical professional learning (McMahon and
Reeves 2007 ). This again brings the question back to the purposes of professional
learning—whether teachers are to be updated to come up to an externally imposed
policy or standard or whether professional learning is the means for teachers to
develop and share their expertise as practitioners. The Accomplished Teaching
6 The Development of Accomplished Teaching 93