Teacher professional learning through pedagogy of discomfort

The established link between quality early childhood programs
and positive child trajectories has led to the professionalization
of the early childhood workforce in Australia. Attention has concentrated
on the upgrading of qualifications and opportunities for
professional learning. This paper focuses on exploring teacher
professional learning, positioning it as a reflective practice. It considers
teacher dispositions, moments of disjuncture and how these
influence teacher learning. Theoretically, the paper is informed by
Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus and reflexivity; Mezirow’s theory of
transformative learning; and Boler and Zembylas’s notion of pedagogy
of discomfort. The data are drawn from a statewide mentoring
project for newly graduated early childhood teachers in
Victoria, Australia. The findings suggest that for teacher professional
learning to be transformative, the process must be informed
by a pedagogy of discomfort thereby considering the interplay of
teachers’ professional dispositions, experiences of disjuncture, and
acts of deliberation.