A faculty-in-residence programme: enacting practice-based professional development in a STEAM-focused middle school

This paper describes a faculty-in-residence programme within a school-university partnership at a recently opened STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) middle school in the Southeastern United States. We used an instrumental, qualitative case study approach to investigate how three teachers with differing needs participated in this unique partnership focused on ongoing teacher professional learning and development. Data were collected through pre-post questionnaires, observations, follow-up questions, email exchanges and participants' logs, and teaching documents. The framework of Practice-based Professional Development (PBPD; Ball & Cohen, 1999) is used to theorise and analyse the cases. Findings suggest that the model of PBPD applied across a variety of contexts, even within a single school, assists individual teachers in effectively honing desired instructional practices. The paper concludes with suggestions for how a faculty-in-residence programme utilising PBPD might serve as a professional learning and development, in a manner benefiting both the STEAM school and university.