CONNECTING GENUINE TEACHER DEVELOPMENT TO THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL-JUSTICE

This paper discusses two issues which continue to undermine the authen ticity and social value of efforts to promote teacher development [1]. First it is argued that underneath the rhetoric of many current effor ts to empower teachers to take control of their own professional devel opment is a reality in which teachers remain extremely limited in the scope of their power to influence the conditions of their work. Second it is argued that even when efforts to promote teacher development ar e not illusory, teacher development often becomes an end itself unconn ected to broader questions about education in a democratic society. Th e author argues for efforts to promote teacher development which are b oth genuine, and connected to the promotion of equity and social justi ce.