Pedagogical Connections, Boundaries and Barriers: the Place of Travel in Teachers’ Professional Development

There has been increasing interest shown by those concerned with young children’s learning in international policy and practice. By travelling ourselves, we sought to understand the imperative for practitioners to look beyond their own geographical and cultural locations for guidance. In order to understand this, the authors have considered issues of teacher identity, political dominance and contexts of influence. In addition, metaphors to extend and understand the idea of ‘teacher travellers’ have been employed in order to consider the‘impulse’ to travel, their ‘journeys’, their ‘return’ and the ‘impact’ of their travels. The article critically considers the question of what nourishes and sustains a teacher’s sense of professional identity and tentatively concludes that where a guiding philosophy exists and is clearly articulated in policy and practice, then a synthesis of other models enhances pedagogy. However, where such a guiding philosophy is absent, a ‘cut and paste’ model is applied.