Professional Development as a Process of Renewal

“What should a teacher teach, and how?” This is the question typically directing teacher professional development. It neglects, however, a deeper, more powerful inquiry: “Who is the person that teaches?” Rarely is the teacher-as-person addressed in school; yet, a teacher’s self-knowledge and inner development profoundly influences how he or she negotiates the complexities of school life, interacts with others, and implements curriculum. Following several teachers for two years in a program called The Courage to Teach, the author pieces together reflections, journals, interviews, and observations, weaving a tapestry that tells the stories of the teachers’ inner lives, and how they are discovered and claimed in more conscious ways; those discoveries further illuminate how self-knowledge affects teachers’ interactions and effectiveness in school. Principals, teachers, professional development specialists, and university faculty in teacher education will find this work fascinating. It carefully documents a process rarely captured in educational literature and provides evidence of both the importance and the complexities of teaching from within.