The state of the nation in CPD: a literature review

A recent literature review in support of the ‘State of the Nation’ (SoN) investigation into CPD in England indicated a number of limitations both in how researchers see CPD and how schools themselves participate and register this participation in such activities. The SoN review was conducted in the period from late 2007 to early 2008, but was subsequently updated during 2009, to form a starting point for this article. The initial review focused only on the UK literature and was confined to the period 2004–2007. Although the focus was the UK, there was a considerable amount of international literature collected at the time and used subsequently to place this picture in a broader perspective. This broader perspective was an examination of how teachers create and share professional practice, and hence develop that practice within their schools. This work was based on looking at the importance of networks, drawing not only on an extensive consideration of relevant literature, but also on a major study of how schools create and share practice associated with the introduction of assessment for learning practices in classrooms and schools. The SoN study indicates that the CPD literature has not served the field well, in terms of a paucity of literature on what happens in ordinary schools and under‐theorised work, particularly in terms of teacher learning . The study of networks indicates that there is potential to open up new areas of research and indeed practice in schools. However, there are a number of approaches based either on networks as communities or on electronic metaphors of networks that pay insufficient attention to the thriving network theory literature. This article examines some of the contributions that network thinking can make.