Are They in Roses? Teachers and Staff Development

Abstract

Staff development programs need to account for the low image of teachers and to plan ways in which teachers can develop personal and professional meaning from their work. Current disaffection with public schools inevitably focuses on teachers. This has always been so, teachers historically having had low status and low image within the profession and with the public. While staff development deals mainly with methods and techniques, unless these are linked to larger educational ends, teachers are left trapped in their roles as technicians while their existential being is screened out of their work. Staff development should involve teachers in setting goals, improving conditions of teaching and learning, and gleaning personal and professional meanings from their work as teachers.

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