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Transcending Teacher Professional Development: From Determinism To Complexity, Abdul Rahman, Garry F. Hoban, Wendy S. Nielsen

Abdul Rahman

There is a multiplicity of factors and actors that come into play to make teacher professional development (TPD) a strategic and powerful scheme for improving teacher practices. This multiplicity is evident in educational practices and theories. Consequently, traditional perspectives that take a simple view of TPD as a single, independent entity in teacher learning in isolation from other factors and actors are problematic. To better understand how TPD can bring about change in teacher practices-transforming teacher learning, there is a need to transcend the linear, causal, deterministic assumption about TPD. Here, in this discussion paper, I argue that powerful TPD …