OUR EXPERIENCE
    • teachers have tensions that they experiencing in their daily practice:
     • between what they want to do and what they have time to do
     • between what they believe to be important and what they are being pushed 
      to do 
    • these tensions are complex collections of opposing forces of wants 
    and needs that complicate the decision making processes of teachers
    • sometimes teachers want to resolve these tensions
    • sometimes these tensions are the very reason that they are seeking 
    out professional growth opportunities
    OUR INTERESTS
    • we want to understand these tensions and the roles they play in:
     • the decisions that teachers make
     • the lessons they deliver
     • the answers they seek through their professional growth
    • we want to understand how these tensions are born within teachers 
    and through teacher practice
    • we want to understand our roles, as professional development 
    facilitators, in:
     • helping teachers live with and/or resolve these tensions
     • creating more tensions
   TENSIONS – Berlak & Berlak 
   (1981)
   • tensions (sometimes called dilemmas) have been recognised as an 
    integral part of teaching practice dating since the early 1980's
   • Berlak and Berlak (1981) examined the complex and sometimes 
    contradictory behaviours of teachers in responding to the curriculum 
    within socio-cultural contexts 
   TENSIONS – Lampert (1985)
   • emphasised the personal and practical aspects of dilemmas
   • for her, tensions can be understood as problems to be managed, 
    rather than solved – teachers are "dilemma managers"
   • tensions contribute to the developing identity of the teacher
   • the admission that some of the conflicts encountered in teaching are 
    not resolvable is not a weakness
   TENSIONS – Adler (2001)
   • also takes the view that dilemmas in teaching are often managed 
    rather than solved
   • agrees with Lampert (1985) that the recognition and management of 
    the dilemmas is tied to personal biography
   • however, she integrates the Berlak & Berlak’s (1981) socio-cultural 
    perspective, which emphasises the importance of contexts beyond 
    the classroom situation