Making sense of being enquiring practitioners

This strand of the 'Partnership for Professional Enquiry' conference May 2007 looks at the experience of enquiring. It is based on interviews with chartered teachers and two case studies of the perceptions of professional enquiry on the part of chartered teachers their colleagues and their line managers.

Contextualities of enquiring

• How important is locale and context to professional enquiry
• Is it valid to differentiate between an enquiring professional and professional enquiry?
• What roles do learning as well as research have in both the school and HE learning environments?

Enquiring with others

• Does accountability at national level make it too risky for school leaders and managers to trust teachers to take a leading role in setting the improvement agenda?
• Should teachers only get to lead if headteachers say so?
• What has to happen to make proactive teachers less of a surprise to school managers?