Teacher professional learning: a holistic and cultural endeavour imbued with transformative possibility

In this article, I conduct a critical scrutiny of how best to frame Teacher Professional Learning (TPL) in a time of uncertainty, to what extent, contemporary mainstream literature provides a complete description of this construct and, if not, what might be missing, hidden, unintended or otherwise overlooked. I draw from critical feminist perspectives as a novel lens to theorise TPL differently, taking a holistic, emancipatory and nuanced perspective that goes beyond a “what works” and “what counts” approach and the certainty implied by preset norms and empirical consensus. I then use this lens to conduct a critical scrutiny of a select literature, a mainstream framing of TPL using best-evidence syntheses, reports from one transnational policy influencer, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and counter-narrative studies concerned with reductionist analytics. Findings reveal two limitations with the current mainstream framing of TPL as a data-driven system of performance management. The first limitation concerns TPLs reified from the many unsolvable dilemmas and contradictions of teachers’ developmental practices when framed as linear processes of adoption, integration and problem solving. The second limitation is the ethico-political question of whose knowledge counts in an evidence-based practice that underplays, and often denies, other ways of knowing. The study contributes to a novel theorisation of TPL and raises important questions for teacher professional learning and development worthy of further research and consideration.