Diana Patricia Pineda Montoya

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47133/tegc_ch54  

ABSTRACT

All of us were once pre-service English teachers wondering whether the theories being studied would work in real life. After becoming professionals, we realized that making theory work depended not solely on us, as teachers, but also on context-situated realities. We learned that the key to navigating our profession is participating actively with a community of educators in our initial years of teaching and then continuing to participate throughout our career. Likewise, by belonging to a community of practice (e.g., study group), you will also be better able to understand what is happening in your classroom. In this chapter, you will learn about three dimensions—professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning—and how these can help you transition from being a pre-service teacher to a novice teacher and then to an experienced teacher. As part of these dimensions, you will learn about the professional practices needed for becoming an effective teacher and, also, for advancing your career. 

Keywords: collaborative professionalism, professional capital, teacher learning, context-situated realities, community of practice

How to cite this chapter: 

Pineda Montoya, D. (2023). Promoting Collaborative Professionalism Among Pre-Service Teachers. In V. Canese & S. Spezzini (Eds.), Teaching English in Global Contexts, Language, Learners and Learning (pp. 657-667). Editorial Facultad de Filosofía, UNA. https://doi.org/10.47133/tegc_ch54

INTRODUCTION

After 20 years of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL), I began reflecting on what was most helpful for me and others in becoming effective teachers. I also reflected on my experiences helping novice teachers in their initial years of teaching. Overwhelmingly, the key to becoming an effective teacher is belonging to a professional community. By collaborating with colleagues in a professional community, all of us can benefit from collaborative professionalism. 

During my own pre-service program, I had the opportunity to collaborate with peers in opportunities that positively influenced the trajectory of my profession. These opportunities for collaborative professionalism were initially promoted by professors who encouraged us to participate in research groups and to present at conferences. Similarly, even though you might still be a pre-service teacher, you can already start benefiting from collaborative professionalism. To do so, join a community of practice such as a study group or research group and, through this professional community, support your own transition from pre-service teacher to novice teacher. By doing so, you can have an experience like the one described by this pre-service teacher: “I am a teacher because we are a teacher community, and because we are a teacher community, I am a teacher” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999, p. 284).  

BACKGROUND

One of my most meaningful pre-service activities was being invited by a professor to participate in a research group. This was a privileged experience because my teacher education curriculum did not include research courses. This early-career experience was a catalyst in prompting me to develop research skills, which included reflecting on my own teaching practices. 

These initial research experiences were instrumental as I advanced in my own career such as guiding pre-service teachers in a research project during their teaching practicum. Years later, when I coordinated a university outreach program (English courses for adolescent learners), I mentored pre-service teachers in their final semesters and—after they graduated—continued to mentor them as novice teachers in their first hired teaching position. Although these mentees (initially as pre-service teachers and then as novice teachers) were not required to conduct research, my support served to foster their reflective practices about curriculum, lesson planning, class development, and learner assessment. 

An important part of my mentoring support for these novice teachers was to inquire about their classroom practices. This led me to realize how important it was for them to know that they could count on me for support and help. These novice teachers needed to know that they were not alone, which, in turn, kept them from feeling isolated in this profession. Since then, I have advocated for spaces where teachers can share who they are, what they do, and why they do it. By sharing the knowledge behind your practice and connecting your experiences with theory, you can also go beyond your classroom and enter the realm of professional collaboration (Pineda Montoya, 2018). Moreover, by examining, acknowledging, and sharing your knowledge through ongoing collaboration and support, you will become empowered by your own continuous learning and, thus, be able to positively influence your students’ learning.

In my journey as an educational researcher and teacher educator, I was fortunate to be empowered by professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning. Professional capital helped me understand the intricacies of teacher work. Collaborative professionalism shed light on what I could do for making improvements. Teacher learning gave me the tools to situate a teacher’s individual learning within the context of school and society.

In this chapter, I explain professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning with respect to their corresponding theories and research findings. I also recommend pedagogical applications to help you connect these concepts through your participation in professional communities. By following these recommendations, you will be able to develop your own professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning. By doing so, you will be in a position for having a highly successful teaching career.

MAJOR DIMENSIONS

When participating in a professional community, teachers receive feedback, advice, and support for facing pedagogical challenges. They also receive help for overcoming pervasive feelings of uncertainty and loneliness that often afflict teachers in their seemingly isolated classrooms (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). By participating in professional communities, teachers can reflect on their own practices and develop professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning. 

Professional Capital

Professional capital is a concept introduced by Hargreaves and Fullan (2012). After examining different types of educational collaboration, these researchers introduced the term capital as a metaphor that represents an investment in teaching for later receiving a return from this investment. They viewed professional capital as essential for effective teaching. It consists of the three types of capital—human capital, social capital, and decisional capital:

• Human capital is the economic value of knowledge and skills that people develop through education and training. After having invested their time and money in such training, people hope to receive economic returns (i.e., capital). Specifically for the field of education, human capital is the development and acquisition of knowledge and skills for learning to teach. 

• Social capital exists in human relationships and contributes to a productive activity. It is affected by the quality and quantity of interactions and social relationships among people who are accessing knowledge through other people’s human capital. As such, social capital is inherently based on collaborative support and advice. When teachers expand their network of influences and opportunities, they create social capital through which they can increase their knowledge while also developing resilience. 

• Decisional capital enables teachers to make wise judgments in uncertain situations. As such, it is an ability for making discretionary judgments. Decisional capital is built on colleagues’ insights and experiences. It is acquired through structured and unstructured experiences, skilled and thoughtful practice, and shared reflection. Together, these experiences and practices constitute the essence of professionalism. 

Collaborative Professionalism

Collaborative professionalism describes how educators transform their teaching and their students’ learning by collaboratively working together with other colleagues in pursuit of meaning, purpose, and success. Collaborative professionalism is evidence-informed; however, it is not data-driven (Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018). It consists of “rigorous planning, deep and sometimes demanding dialogue, candid but constructive feedback, and continuous collaborative inquiry” (p. 4). This rigorous professional collaboration is evident when teachers participate in lesson studies, collaborative planning, and cooperative learning.

Collaborative professionalism can result from the collaborative inquiry of teachers during professional learning communities and other teacher-led groups (Hargreaves, 2019). When teacher conversations lead to actions that impact students, their collaboration permeates the whole life of the school. When educators care about one other and show solidarity with each other, their collaborative professionalism becomes embedded in a school’s culture:

Professionals—at all levels of the education system—working together, sharing knowledge, skills, and experience to improve student achievement, and [the] well-being of both students and staff. Collaborative professionalism values the voices of all and reflects an approach in support of our shared responsibility to provide equitable access to learning for all. All staff are valued and have shared responsibility as they contribute to collaborative learning cultures. (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016, as cited in Hargreaves, 2019, p. 614)

Teacher Learning 

Teacher learning is based on the premise that teachers who know more teach better. To facilitate our understanding of this premise, Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) deconstructed knowing more and teaching better as follows:

• the way that teachers learn,

• the knowledge and professional practice that underpin teacher learning, and

• the intellectual, organizational, and social contexts that support teacher learning in relation to the objective of schooling and educational change. 

This teacher learning framework consists of three types of teacher knowledge (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999): knowledge-for-practice, knowledge-in-practice, and knowledge-of-practice:  

• Knowledge-for-practice refers to how the researchers generate formal knowledge and theory that the teachers use to improve their practice. Here, teachers are expected to learn from coaches who help them with a particular teaching model. Distinctions exist between expert teachers and novice teachers as well as between competent teachers and teachers who do not have enough content or methods for being able to teach effectively. 

• Knowledge-in-practice places value on practical knowledge possessed by teachers without distinguishing knowledge generation and knowledge use. Teachers are seen as competent professionals who problematize situations in their classrooms and make new sense of these situations by connecting them to previous experiences. Knowledge and learning are socially constructed with experienced teachers guiding novices through the practical and intellectual path of a mindful teacher. 

• Knowledge-of-practice is when teachers investigate their practice by interpreting and interrogating knowledge and theory produced by others. Within their inquiry community, teachers learn by generating local knowledge that theorizes and constructs this knowledge and by connecting it to larger social, cultural, and political issues. Knowledge and the knower are indistinguishable with knowledge being seen as transformative and, also, as constructed collectively among local and broader communities. 

Teacher learning is further enhanced when teachers belong to a professional community, which, in turn, can make a big difference in their professional career (Pineda Montoya, 2018). To better understand teacher learning within professional communities, Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) introduced inquiry-as-stance to show

• how inquiry is related to practice, 

• what teachers learn from inquiry, and 

• which knowledge is being generated. 

Inquiry-as-stance leads to a richer understanding of knowledge such as occurs when teachers and pre-service teachers work together in their inquiry communities. Here, these educators work together and generate local knowledge while envisioning and theorizing their practice. They also interpret and question the theory and research of others. As such, when used by teachers in these inquiry communities, inquiry-as-stance is both societal and political. 

As shown above, teacher learning is much more than the knowledge needed by teachers to support their practice. Teacher learning goes beyond examining one’s own actions in the classroom, beyond reflecting on one’s actions, and beyond identifying one’s practices within a community. Teacher learning occurs when teachers work together as part of a community by taking a problem-posing stance where they question their own practices and assumptions and then take leadership roles to transform the curriculum, classroom, and school.

Intersection: Professional Capital, Collaborative Professionalism, Teacher Learning 

Professional capital (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012), collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves, 2019), and teacher learning (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999) can take place separately (such as described earlier), or they can intersect with one another to further support teachers’ professional growth. Findings from my initial study (Pineda Montoya, 2018) and preliminary interpretations from a follow-up study suggest that these concepts often intersect during the professional growth of all teachers (pre-service, novice, and experienced). Professional capital intersects with teacher learning when human capital aligns with knowledge-for-practice, when decisional capital aligns with knowledge-in-practice, and when social capital aligns with knowledge-of-practice. Another intersection is when social capital and knowledge-of-practice align with collaborative professionalism. To help you better understand these dimensions and concepts and their respective intersections, I created the graphic shown in Figure 1. 

Figure 1

Intersection of Professional Capital, Collaborative Professionalism, and Teacher Learning

Figure 1 illustrates how these dimensions and concepts intersect with each other and how, by doing so, they contribute to the learning experienced by pre-service teachers, novice teachers, and experienced teachers. These intersections support teachers in the following ways:

• Human capital (knowledge and skills) is developed by teachers during their education and is realized through the generation of formal knowledge and theory that teachers acquire throughout their lives (knowledge-for-practice). 

• Decisional capital provides teachers with agency to make wise judgments in their everyday practice and build on the insights and experiences of colleagues, which, in turn, correspond to the practical knowledge that teachers acquire (knowledge-in-practice). 

• Social capital becomes a resource for teachers to establish relationships with colleagues such as in the collaborative professionalism that transcends the context of the school system to impact larger social, cultural, and political contexts of education (knowledge-of-practice). 

These three bulleted items extend beyond the relationships illustrated in Figure 1 by further explaining the connection between teacher learning and professional capital and their relationship to collaborative professionalism. Hence, a single bulleted item does not correspond to any single concept (teacher learning, professional capital, or collaborative professionalism) but rather describes the connections that I found among these concepts.

PEDAGOGICAL APPLICATIONS

Develop your professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning by participating in one or more of these learning communities.

Communities of Practice 

A community of practice is an organized group of people with a common interest who continuously negotiate the goals and topics to be discussed in their meetings. When participating in your community of practice, commit to providing mutual support by collaborating jointly with others to develop resources over time (Wenger, 1999). For example, if you are teaching in a school that uses Content and Language Integrated Learning, consider joining an online community of practice, such as one that might be accessible on the website for the TESOL International Association. This will provide you with an opportunity to meet regularly (e.g., perhaps monthly) with others who teach in similar settings worldwide.  

Professional Learning Communities

A professional learning community is a group of teachers who inquire collaboratively about improving their practice and take collective responsibility to implement what they have planned (Hargreaves, 2019). When participating in your professional learning community, establish clear goals, promote team building, gather data, solve problems, and design and conduct interventions. For example, if you would like to improve your pronunciation teaching skills, meet virtually with colleagues (locally and worldwide) who have similar interests. Together with your new friends, identify learners’ pronunciation difficulties and share teaching techniques. 

Study Groups 

A study group is a place where teachers participate voluntarily, negotiate their own agendas, sustain collaborative dialogue, and reflect on their work (Birchak et al., 1998). For example, a study group might be a great place to learn about translanguaging from your colleagues. When participating with colleagues in a study group, follow your interests and needs, critique your beliefs and practices, and explore alternative possibilities for thinking about these concerns. A specific type of group would be a lesson study group where you can collaborate to plan, teach, observe classes, and collect information about your students’ learning (Díaz Maggioli, 2012). After you have collected information about how your students learned, use it to refine future lessons. Another type of group would be a collaborative lesson study (Collet, 2019), which is for planning lessons collaboratively with a colleague and later revisiting with each other to see how your respective lessons worked out. 

Peer-Coaching 

Peer-coaching is when two peers work together to improve their teaching practices by focusing on specific dilemmas within their respective classes. When participating in peer-coaching, work collaboratively with one of your professional peers to improve your respective teaching practices (Díaz-Maggioli, 2004, 2012). During a pre-determined time (e.g., one month), collaborate to better understand classroom challenges and identify solutions. This works especially well with colleagues who teach at the same institution. For example, if two of you teach the same behavior-challenged students, consider providing mutual support by implementing peer-coaching. Such coaching can consist of visiting each other’s classrooms and then following up with feedback and reflection. 

Research Seedbeds

A research seedbed is an extracurricular learning community consisting of pre-service teachers who learn to do research with the guidance of a professor (Saavedra-Cantor et al., 2015). It is organic in nature and can be derived from the initiative of students, professors, or researchers. When joining a research seedbed, be sure that you and your colleagues share a common interest Mesa Villa et al., 2020). Then, collaborate with others in decision-making processes and in defining your joint goal-oriented work. For example, perhaps you could join a research seedbed that examines the effectiveness of incorporating social media as an instructional tool.

In this chapter, you became aware that teachers (especially novice teachers) can tend to feel uncertain and isolated. You learned how to promote collaborative professionalism among pre-service teachers to minimize possible feelings of uncertainty and isolation and, also, establish a mindset of ongoing professional development. You learned that, by participating in one or more learning communities, you can develop your own collaborative professionalism, professional capital, and teacher learning. By now knowing about these dimensions and concepts, consider participating in at least one learning community to ensure positive progress along your career trajectory.

Some of the key concepts from this chapter are as follows:

• Professional capital is investing time and money into becoming a good teacher (i.e., receiving a return on your investment). It consists of human capital, social capital, and decisional capital.

• Teacher learning is based on the premise that teachers who know more teach better. It consists of knowledge-for-practice, knowledge-in-practice, and knowledge-of-practice.

• Collaborative professionalism describes how educators transform their teaching and student learning by working together with meaning, purpose, and success.

• Learning communities are educator groups such as communities of practice, professional learning communities, study groups, peer coaching, and research seedbeds.

• By participating in learning communities, all teachers (pre-service, novice, experienced) can further develop professional capital, collaborative professionalism, and teacher learning. 

Based on the above concepts, answer these questions:

1. To what extent do you feel that isolation and uncertainty are inherent within the teaching profession? Why?

2. How can you work on your human capital, social capital, and decisional capital during the time that you are a pre-service teacher? How will this change when you become a novice teacher and then an experienced teacher?

3. Have you noticed examples of collaborative professionalism among your own teachers and professors? What characteristics of collaborative professionalism can you identify? How do you think these affected your quality of learning?

4. Based on your experiences and observations, how can you go about identifying teachers’ actions as being motivated either socially or politically?

In a learning community, develop collaborative professionalism by doing the following:

1. Start sharing informally with your peers and respond positively to opportunities for participating in educator groups.

2. Identify your own research interests and those of your peers.

3. Join a community of learners to support pedagogy and research within your teacher preparation program and foster your ongoing development of the English language.

4. Seek opportunities to participate in research seedbeds, study groups, or research groups on topics of interest.

5. As a pre-service teacher, reflect on implications, challenges, and social realities for teaching and learning English in local and global contexts.

• Additional insights to collaborative professionalism are provided at these websites:

• Communities of practice. https://www.communityofpractice.ca/

• Professional capital. https://www.andyhargreaves.com/

• Research seedbeds. https://web.redcolsi.org/inicio  

• and Introducción a la Estrategia Semilleros de Investigación: Encuentra tu alma semillerista. https://www.udea.edu.co/wps/portal/udea/web/inicio/investigacion/jovenes-investigadores-semilleros-investigacion/  

• Study groups. https://lessonresearch.net/ 

Aspects related to collaborative professionalism are addressed by other chapters in this book: 

Chapter 4 Humanism in English Language Teaching by B. Meadows

Chapter 35 Developing Critical Thinking Through Inquiry-Based Learning by V. Canese

Chapter 52 Becoming a Reflective Practitioner Through Action Research by V. Canese

Chapter 53 Doing Research in the ELT Undergraduate Classroom by A. Salas

Chapter 55 Building and Engaging With Your Professional Community by M. Algren  

Birchak, B., Connor, C., Crawford, K. M., Kahn, L. H., Kasar, S., Turner, S., & Short, K. G. (1998). Teacher study groups: Building community through dialogue and reflection (ED424584). ERIC; National Council of Teachers of English.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning in communities. Review of Research in Education, 24(1), 249–306. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X024001249 

Collet, V. S. (2019). Collaborative lesson study: Revisioning teacher professional development. Teachers College Press.

Díaz-Maggioli, G. (2004) Teacher-centered professional development. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Díaz-Maggioli, G. (2012). Teaching language teachers. Scaffolding professional learning. Rowman and Littlefield Education.

Hargreaves, A. (2019). Teacher collaboration: 30 years of research on its nature, forms, limitations, and effects, Teachers and Teaching, 25(5), 603-621. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2019.1639499 

Hargreaves, A., & Fullan, M. (2012). Professional capital: Transforming teaching in every school. Teachers College Press.

Hargreaves, A., & O’Connor, M. (2018). Collaborative professionalism: When teaching together means learning for all. Corwin.

Mesa Villa, C. P., Gómez-Giraldo, J. S., & Arango Montes, R. (2020). Becoming language teacher-researchers in a research seedbed (D588987). Profile: Issues in Teachers’ Professional Development, 22(1), 159-173. https://doi.org/10.15446/profile.v22n1.78806.

Pineda Montoya, D. P. (2018). EFL teachers’ identities and their teaching and assessment practices in a public university of a major city in Colombia. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at El Paso]. DigitalCommons@UTEP. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED588987 

Saavedra-Cantor, C. J., Muñoz-Sánchez, A. I., Antolínez-Figueroa, C., Rubiano-Mesa, Y. L., & Puerto-Guerrero, A. H. (2015). Semilleros de investigación: Desarrollos y desafíos para la formación en pregrado [Research seedbeds: Developments and challenges in preservice preparation]. Educación y Educadores, 18(3), 391-407. https://doi.org/10.5294/edu.2015.18.3.2

Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press.

Diana Patricia Pineda Montoya is an associate professor at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. Diana has taught English as a foreign language (EFL) since 2000 and has also been a research advisor for bachelor’s and master’s students. She holds a master’s degree from the Universidad de Jaén (Spain) and a doctorate from the University of Texas at El Paso (USA). Her research interests include working with experienced K-12 teachers who teach as adjunct faculty in higher education and exploring their identities, professional development, and classroom assessment practices. Diana also conducts research on autonomous language learning in EFL classes.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1540-5786 

Email for correspondence regarding this chapter: diana.pineda@udea.edu.co

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