The influence of learning and professional backgrounds and the curriculum on

The physical environment and the resources available to teachers in the PYP context in which PD is embedded can have an influence on teachers and their individual attitudes towards PD (Wenger and Lave, 1991; Mezirow, 1997; Stoll et al., 2006). One very valid reason for teachers to collaborate in PD is to enhance their common understanding of the curriculum in order to best exploit it and prepare students for the high-stakes proficiency exam. In order to navigate student learning, PYPs have curriculum committees that create the curricula to be followed in the courses. A curriculum, like teachers, education, and learning, is not fixed; it is flexible and dynamic as it evolves to react to student needs and changing technology. The evolution and change of the curriculum creates the need for PD, and if teachers do not have some level of agency in these changes, their interest in PD can be negatively affected (Ball, 2008; Biesta, 2010). The overarching goals of the curriculum may be fixed, but for teachers to have agency, there should be some fluidity in reaching these goals.

After investigating PYP English language education in Turkey (British Council, 2015) in 38 universities in 15 cities, surveying 4,300 students and 400 teachers, observing 65 classes, and interviewing 72 teachers and administrators, the British Council published a report that claims that the main challenges in Turkish PYPs are that the English language courses are too short and primarily exam-focused. As a result, English teaching at high schools was revised and now incorporates more hours of tuition in an effort to give students the opportunity to learn a workable amount of English prior to entering university (Aydınlı and Ortaç, 2016).

Like all teachers, those working in PYPs have demanding jobs that are seen by all as having a single focus—preparing students for the English language proficiency exam. With this primary focus in mind, it would be of benefit for the groups of teachers to speak a meta-language that everyone understands (but often do not as they have different learning backgrounds). The current literature on teacher engagement in PD focuses on teachers’ relationships with the courses they teach and their degree of ownership of the curriculum, materials, and assessment in terms of teachers’ professional and learning backgrounds (Hargreaves, Lieberman, Fullan, and Hopkins,

2009; Priestley, Edwards, Priestley, and Miller, 2012). Having the ability to influence the course and curriculum can create an environment where colleagues share a vision (Sahlberg, 2011), which, along with having a safe environment where risks are encouraged, is most conducive to a PLC (Stoll et al., 2006; Nieveen, 2011; Priestley, 2011). A teacher’s ability to interest students in the curriculum is related to how involved and engaged he or she is (Campbell, 2012).

Having acknowledged that the current literature advocates teachers having some degree of agency in interpreting the curriculum, it should now be explained what curriculum actually entails. A curriculum can lay out educational goals and how they should be executed and assessed (Shulman, 1987; Elmore, 1996). Curriculum in the macro-sense can even incorporate culture and values (Saylor, Alexander, and Lewis, 1981; Lawton, 1996). Curriculum can be described as encompassing implicit curricula, excluded and extracurricular curricula, and hidden curricula (Dewey, 1902; Smith, 2000; Kelly, 2009). The implicit curriculum, which is not explicitly stated in the curriculum’s design, can involve school culture and the behaviours, attitudes, and expectations in which a multinational mixture conflict may arise. Similar to the implicit curriculum is the hidden curriculum, which entails learning that is incidental (Kelly, 2009) and can include relationships with students and peers (Jackson, 1986) as well as ethical standards that teachers hold, which may influence aspects of their professional practice such as their beliefs about teaching and learning (Campbell, 2003). The excluded curriculum is that which is explicitly chosen to not be included in the curriculum; this could be, for example, religion or certain aspects of evolution. Finally, the extracurricular is that which is above and beyond the curriculum goals, one simple example being school clubs. All curriculum types need to be exploited effectively, which requires collaboration and a common language; this could be more challenging in a group of national and international teachers with different nationalities, cultures, upbringings, and learning and professional backgrounds, along with different interpretations of PYP goals.

Just as curriculum is influenced by the micro-culture of an individual institution as well as the greater culture in which it is carried out, education itself is also a product of culture. For example, many developing countries have less explicit democracy and top- down, hierarchical societies (especially countries outside of the West and Europe,

which were not broadly involved in the discussions about and subsequent evolution of the Enlightenment). Developing countries also often have more traditional education because reduced education budgets lead to fewer schools and larger classes, which are more easily managed with traditional methods of top-down, teacher-centred instruction. This may be reflected in the curriculum and its implementation.

However, referring back to Chapter 2, section 2 (see pp. 35-37), where internationalism and the current neoliberal influences on HE are discussed, Datnow (2012) talks of the prevailing trends for accountability in education, which is judged in terms of student performance using standardised test measures and was noted by Biesta (2017) as constituting a barrier to the achievement of agency in PD. The need to investigate these aspects further in this context led to the third research question: 3) How does the PYP curriculum influence engagement in PD?

2.9 Chapter summary

This study looking at factors that influence teachers’ engagement in PD is set in the modern, post-traditional, intercultural, and globally aware world of education, a setting where agency can be seen as both a necessity and a greater challenge than in the past, when teachers often worked in more mono-cultural environments, unlike the more common multi-national settings of today. As a result of current neo-liberal universities accountability and PD are must sought out to provide evidence of quality education. Much has been said about adults learning in the workplace and about the beliefs they bring about teaching and learning (Knowles, 1984; Mezirow, 1997; Borg, 2007). Alternatives have been put forward in attempts to recognise teachers’ reflexively constructed, fluid identities and collaborative PD in communities such as PLCs (Stoll et al., 2006) and CoPs (Wenger, 1998). This chapter has acknowledged that teachers with agency can thrive in the workplace. However, more research needs to be done on understanding the tensions that may occur when multinational, multi-ethnic, and multi- belief teachers interact and collaborate in PD. As a result, the first sub-research question focuses on this area: How do teachers’ learning and professional backgrounds influence engagement in PD?

While much research has been carried out on the interactions of groups can influence PD, there are no specific studies focusing on PYP groups when engaging in PD nationalities. Therefore, the second sub-research question is: How do teachers’ interactions with each other influence engagement in PD?

In relation to the material aspects that influence engagement in PD, the course and assessment in this study must also be examined as the teachers have many different learning backgrounds, professional experiences, and relationships with the course content; they may also have different notions of how to interpret and implement the course, which could influence their views of PD. Therefore, the final sub-research question is: How does the PYP curriculum influence engagement in PD?

The aim is that the three sub-research questions will contribute to a better understanding of the factors that influence PD in the PYP departments looking at PD

also through the lens of agency aims to bring new knowledge to implementing PD in a multi-national group of educators.