Chapter 3
Variations in the Conditions for Teachers’
Professional Learning and Development:
Teacher Development, Retention
and Renewal over a Career
Qing Gu
3.1 Introduction
Every student in every school in every country of the world has an entitlement not
only to the provision of educational opportunities but also to be taught by teachers
who, as well as being knowledgeable about curriculum and pedagogically adept,
are constant and persistent in their commitment to encouraging their students to
learn and achieve; and who are themselves demonstrably passionate about their
own learning. In one sense, these are self-evident truths about the core task of every
teacher to engage students in learning which will assist them in their personal,
social and intellectual development. In another sense, however, the ambitions which
are embedded in these truths will not always be easy to achieve consistently over a
30-year career span.
Teachers’work is carried out in an era of testing times where the policy focus in
many countries has shifted from provision and process to outcomes. The OECD’s
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), for example, is having an
unprecedented influence on national policies for improvement and standards across
many nation states. The rapidly growing international interest in‘surpassing
Shanghai’ and outperforming the world’s leading systems (Tucker 2011 ) has
contributed to intensify further national and international emphases upon standards,
performativity and accountability. For many schools in many countries, this means
that their educational values and practices, particularly in relation to the progress
and achievement of their students, are now under increased public scrutiny. At the
same time, widespread movement of population in many countries has seen the
This paper is drawn from Day and Gu ( 2014 ) and Day and Gu ( 2010 ).
Q. Gu (&)
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England, UK
e-mail: [email protected]
©Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017
M.A. Peters et al. (eds.),A Companion to Research in Teacher Education,
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4075-7_3
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