In Ireland teacher continuing professional development is provided by national support services. These are staffed with teachers seconded annually from their schools for a maximum of five years. Government policy claims that the teachers’ professional learning will be enhanced by the secondment and that the school will benefit accordingly when the teacher returns (DoE, 2018).
My research investigated what eight teachers learned during secondment to one such service and its impact on their future careers. It explored this from the perspective of teachers previously seconded to the service who had since either returned to school or taken up other education positions.
Study participants referenced an initial euphoria in commencing secondment due to diverse schedules, robust induction and working with like-minded people. As the reality of the new role dawned, however, a fraught transition from teacher to teacher educator manifested as feelings of fraudulence and a sense of moving from a ‘once valued specialist’ at school to a ‘rank amateur’ in teacher education. The teaching of adults was reported to be a distinct challenge. Believing that teacher educators have a duty to ‘fix things’ for teachers, partcipants admitted to dictating rather than facilitating teacher learning. Although competent first-order practitioners with rich subject and pedagogical prowess, they grappled with the second order domain of ‘teaching teachers’ which requires skills such as working with adult learners.
‘As the reality of the new role dawned, a fraught transition from teacher to teacher educator manifested as feelings of fraudulence and a sense of moving from a “once valued specialist” at school to a “rank amateur” in teacher education.’
