Abstract
This study examined the influence of a school's culture of teaching on teacher development, analyzing the relationship between years of teaching experience and post-lesson discourse. We focused on the 'representation of practice' (Little, 2002) and proposed two hypotheses to study the effects of number of years teaching, both in total and at a specific school. At the school, teachers met regularly to witness a demonstration research lesson given by one teacher, after which they held a discussion about the research lesson. Data were gathered from records of 6 post-lesson conferences and via questionnaires about participants' memories of these conference discussions. The number of years at one's current school was significantly correlated with the number of statements about possibilities and problems of research lesson a teacher uttered during the post-lesson conference. It was also correlated with the number of statements teachers recalled as uttered by others during the post-lesson conference about problems, possibilities, and alternatives regarding the research lesson. The results indicated that research on teacher development should consider the influence of the in-school culture in which teachers reflect, practice, learn, and develop expertise.
