Transformative professional learning within schools: Relationship to teachers' beliefs, expertise and teaching

Although scholarship and research have demonstrated the positive impact of professional learning on academic teaching and learning, an inadequate amount of research has examined how professional learning is associated with transformative teaching for equity, diversity and social justice. This survey study explored the relationship between professional learning and teachers' beliefs about diversity, transformative expertise, and transformative teaching by comparing two models of professional learning in 25 small urban elementary schools. Results indicated that factors in both the process and transformative content models predicted differences in teachers' reported beliefs, expertise, or teaching. While some factors such as learning to teach for social justice consistently predicted increased transformative practices, other factors failed to predict or were associated with decreased transformative practices. After discussing the findings, implications for practice, theory and research are offered. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010.