Discourse Communities: A Framework from which to Consider Professional Development for Rural Teachers of Science and Mathematics

Source: This article was published in Teaching and Teacher Education, Volume 27, Issue 5,
Author(s): Russell Tytler, David Symington, Linda Darby, Cliff Malcolm, Valda Kirkwood, " Discourse Communities: A Framework from which to Consider Professional Development for Rural Teachers of Science and Mathematics", Pages 871–879, Copyright Elsevier (July 2011)

This article examines aspects of professional development for teachers of science and mathematics in schools in rural Australia.

The study identified that rural teachers and principals were strongly focused on teacher PD.
In addition, secondary school subject teachers' needs were only partly met by community of practice PD approaches.
Finally, it was found that a range of rural context factors limited PD opportunities for subject- based secondary teachers.

The paper will focus on the needs of teachers, particularly secondary teachers, for subject-specific professional development and the capacity of different professional development approaches for satisfying these needs.

The concept of discourse communities proved fruitful for understanding PD needs of rural teachers.