From Novice Teacher To Curriculum Leader

This narrative inquiry focuses on the professional development of a Hong Kong novice teacher into a curriculum leader under the curriculum reform. The study also explores the factors affecting his development into a curriculum leader. I invited a young curriculum leader as the collaborator of this study. Through representing some critical events in his professional development, it is shown that while the collaborator's different professional practices and deliberations have brought to him various teacher professional development opportunities, these professional practices and professional deliberations are affected by various factors which also become the facilitating or hindering factors of his development into a curriculum leader.In the study, I serve two roles:the narrator and the interpreter. When I am a narrator "behind the scene", I narrate the collaborator's story with rich social context by reconstructing the experiences of the collaborator. Through narrating various situations and challenges the collaborator encountered, the hidden feelings, views, beliefs, thinking and practices of the collaborator at the school scenes are revealed. These are learning experiences and tacit knowledge deep inside the collaborator and are helpful in increasing the knowledge of teacher professional development and curriculum leadership. When I serve as an interpreter, I am "present" and critically analyse and evaluate the critical events, as well as demonstrating personal stances and theoretical perspectives. This is the feature of narrative inquiry which allows narration and discussion to take place simultaneously and facilitates multi-perspectives and a deeper understanding of the theories during the inquiry process.Through narrating the teacher professional development of the collaborator, implications on the teacher professional development and curriculum leadership are found. For example, factors affecting the collaborator's development into a curriculum leader include meaningful learning, contextual factors and personal traits; conventional curriculum leadership is likely to face challenges from the changing values of the new teacher generation. The study also raises concerns on how to provide appropriate professional development opportunities for teachers in different professional stages to meet their learning needs and the issue of professional development of curriculum leader.By participating in the study, the collaborator is benefited by revisiting his teacher professional development experience which helps him to establish connection between the past, present and future. This sustainable professional development is conducive to his self-empowerment such that his professional knowledge and competency and curriculum leadership are further enhanced. I, as a researcher, am able to revisit my own thinking and practices during the inquiry process and my identity as an education professional practitioner is challenged. This urges me to reflect on my practice. Readers, such as teachers, principals, teacher educators and education professional practitioners, by reading the collaborator's story, may be inspired to make unique interpretation and reflect on their own stories. With the interpretation and reflection process, they are able to obtain resonance and their personal views on teacher professional development and curriculum leadership. The reading and thinking process also allows frontline teachers to gain significant learning experiences and enhance professional knowledge and competency.