Our Lady of Mercy College, Beaumont was awarded €5,000 as part of the Féilte Bursary Scheme to collaborate with Grace Park Educate Together National School, Dublin, Coláiste na Mí, Meath, and DCU, Dublin to enhance student teacher professional development. This project aims to support capacity building, the formation of sustainable and effective leadership and partnership structures, and resources to support school staff and student teachers within and across all schools involved in the project.
School’s reflection
We have used the Rolfe, Freshwater & Jasper (2001) model to reflect on our experiences of co-designing and co-creating professional learning in the context of a cross-sectoral participatory action learning action research (PALAR) community of practice (CoP).
What
The professional learning initiative involved the establishment of a PALAR CoP bringing together teachers from two primary and two post-primary schools with teacher educators working in professional placement in initial teacher education (ITE) at Dublin City University Institute of Education (DCUIoE).The facilitation style was ‘collaborative-directive’, empowering all participants to collaboratively investigate, enhance, and enact practices that support the professional learning of student teachers and Treoraithe.
Participants attended two workshops, one hosted in DCUIoE and the other in one for the participating PP schools, engaging in reflection, auditing, and evaluation of existing practices, celebrating effective individual and organisational approaches that improve the professional placement experience and identifying and addressing practice-based barriers through collaboratively designed strategies. A core objective was to build collaborative and sustainable professional learning communities within and across schools, promoting the teaching profession and fostering leadership and partnership structures. The outputs included the development of a sustainable, engaging, interactive, self-paced online course to disseminate the learning and a suite of related resources for use in schools.
So What
Engagement in this CoP significantly enhanced the professional learning of both school- and DCU IoE-based teacher educators, strengthening school-HEI partnerships and developing capacity and agency among Treoraithe to nurture student teachers’ professional growth and development. The CoP also provided a rich context for inter-school and cross-sectoral shared reflection, helping to identify factors that positively impact student teacher learning, making all stakeholders better informed and empowered within school-HEI partnerships. The project fostered synergies and greater impact than individual efforts could achieve, aligning with the Teaching Council’s vision for supportive collaborative placement models.
Now What
Looking forward, with the support of the remaining Feilte Bursary funding, we anticipate that the work of the PALAR CoP will continue and expand beyond the four original partner schools ensuring a long-term impact. A crucial aspect of the project’s design was sustainability and scalability. The interactive, self-paced online course will be key to extending the CoP’s reach and impact well beyond its direct participants, making learning accessible across diverse educational contexts.
Furthermore, the CoP’s activities are designed to identify opportunities for future development of cross-school and cross-sectoral HEI partnerships, ensuring continued professional learning and collaboration.
Reference
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001) Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan