Developing a Living Model of Professional Development of School Teachers in Nepal: A Collaborative Epistemic Journey

Abstract

This thesis is a lived story of my continuous professional learning journey that I made together with the basic level teachers of a public school in Kavre, Nepal. Engaging collaboratively in a project, Teachers’ Professional Development (TPD), I explored disharmony as a deeply rooted issue of professional development or ananda (harmony) within me and out in my professional space is the essence of my professional development. Harmony was a contextual professional need; however, it was yet to explore and nurture fully as/for professional development within the existing non-living nature of the TPD model. The non-living nature of the TPD model (e.g. centrally developed and prescribed) enhanced disharmony that overlooked my curious self. My curious ‘self’ aspired to (re)connect and (re)cognize my higher self, a harmonious self, which appeared as a curious, artful, cultural, open, and discernible self. So, the purpose of this inquiry or (re)search was to develop a living model of VIII TPD to explore and nurture harmonious professional learning spaces (inner and outer) in a community school. I regenerated a new paradigm, gyan/pragya, through which I perceive the world as anandamaya (harmonious) while participating in multiple ongoing school activities (at times, not). The ongoing activities were the four participatory action research projects: Contextualization of curriculum, School Gardening, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Parental Engagement in an academic session (i.e., 2017-2018). Rather than seeing TPD as a problem and taking responsibility for professional development by adopting the existing paradigm, I developed the new paradigm. From the new world view, I explored my harmonious ‘self’ as/for continuous professional development or growth. Harmony was my living value, quality, or essence. The only need was to live and enhance harmony as/for continuous professional development. While deepening the research issue (teacher’s professional development), I explored TPD as a part of a teacher’s life and a whole in itself. This thesis is my story, the story of a teacher, teacher leader, and educator, in which I am examining whether I was harmonious or a living contradiction. For it, I developed a socio-cultural (i.e. Eastern Wisdom Tradition) perspective and made a collaborative epistemic journey within the gyan/pragya paradigm, a multi-paradigmatic research design space adapting three paradigms (prasna, kalaa, and artha); developing a living-theory-methodology adapting two inquiry approaches (participatory action research and autoethnography), six methods: chalphal (discussion), kurakani (talk), workshop, shadowing, performance, reflective journal), and three logics/genres (narrative, poetic, non-linguistic). It is the story of my embodied knowledge of lived/living bodies that continuously interacted with each other, that I narrated in a participatory autoethnographic fashion. I found that living harmoniously together with teachers in a school can IX develop a living model of TPD. There were five stages of developing a living model of TPD: (1) enhancing collaboration, (2) developing a small ‘m’ model of TPD, (3) enhancing goodness with the TPD model, (4) growing harmony with the TPD model, and (5) nurturing harmony with the TPD model. I developed four strategies for creating a school-based living TPD model as my insights. They were (1) acceptance or embracement of what is working well and continuing practice, (2) exclusion of what is not working well, (3) role modeling, and (4) letting teachers use their discernment. In short, this study explores a living model of TPD-metaphorically Ardhanarishwor (e.g. Ardhanarishwor symbolizes the combination of hard and soft power; Prakriti as soft power and Purusha as hard power). The asset-based approach of TPD is Prakriti-like and the deficit-based approach is Purusha-like. The living model is not perfect and standard but a tentative or transitory model that I co constructed with the basic level teachers. The living model of TPD is a Living Theory model that influenced my learning, the teachers' learning, and school improvement plan as/for continuous professional development while living (at times not) my value, harmony. Harmony is a constellation of the three qualities: ignorance, passion, and happiness. Harmony is Dattatreya-like balanced state of ignorance, action, and goodness. The Living Theory model of TPD is the harmonious school-based model of the school teachers developed by the school teachers and for the school teachers that harmonizes teachers with their needs and strengths.