In an era marked by the widespread use of digital technology, educators face the need to constantly learn and develop their own new literacies for the information era, as well as their competencies to teach and apply best practices using technologies. This paper underscores the vital role of ongoing teacher professional learning (OTPL) with a focus on reflective practices and pedagogical reasoning and action (PR&A) in shaping education quality and equity. Examining three key drivers of educational transformation—big data and learning analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and shifting teacher identities—the paper explores their overall impact on teacher practices. This paper emphasizes technology as a crucial boundary object, a catalyst of educational transformation, when used to foster communication and professional growth. To this end, three boundary objects are identified, namely dashboards, AI-driven professional learning environments, and digital communities of practice. These tools illustrate technology’s capacity to mediate relationships between transformative educational drivers and teacher practices, offering a pathway to navigate shifting perspectives on OTPL. With a theoretical foundation in equitable education, the paper provides insights into the intricate relationship between boundary objects and evolving educational dynamics. It highlights technology's pivotal role in achieving both quality and equitable education in the contemporary educational landscape. It presents a nuanced understanding of how specific tools may contribute to effective OTPL amid rapid educational transformations.

The aim of this study was to examine a professional learning intervention designed to support new teachers with implementing professional practice competencies. Partners from a school authority joined researcher-practitioners from a university to engage in designing a professional learning series for new teachers. A design-based research approach using quantitative (pre- and post-surveys) and qualitative data (artifacts of learning, field notes, classroom observations) were analyzed over one year. There were over 450 participants involved in the professional learning series. The findings indicated the professional learning intervention positioned new teachers as designers of learning engaging in continuous cycles of design–enactment–reflection and strengthened their pedagogical capacity to interconnect professional practice competencies with support from a community of learners. The findings from this study have implications for supporting new teachers during a period of induction and demonstrate one way to provide new teachers with the foundation for continual growth throughout their career.

Teacher leaders play a significant role in school and system improvement. Teacher leaders who maintain teaching responsibilities while taking on leadership responsibilities outside the classroom require professional learning. A school district worked with university faculty and professional learning facilitators to develop a design-based professional learning program (DBPL) as part of a design-based research study. Two research questions guided the study: (1) In what ways does DBPL support teacher leaders’ efforts in creating the collective collaborative capacity? (2) What is needed for teacher leaders to develop collective collaborative capacity? Teacher leaders (n = 374/500) completed a pre- and post-survey, provided artefacts, contributed to online collaborative conversations, and provided written feedback. Four findings emerged from this study; teacher leaders: 1) increased in leading teacher learning, using resources, understanding school authority goals and leadership expectations, and expanding their professional network; 2) increased in their ability to lead collaboration in their professional learning community; 3) developed trusting relationships within the network of learning leaders; and 4) required a shared or distributed approach at the school level. DBPL empowered teacher leaders to exercise leadership by taking on leadership responsibilities outside of the classroom with a deliberate focus on creating coherence by developing collective responsibility for student success.

Faculties of Education in North America are experiencing an increase in demand for professional graduate programs that provide flexible and accessible research pathways for working professionals. Our School of Education offers high quality professional graduate programs that increase access and respond directly to complex needs and problems of practice in education. We describe the design and design thinking approach our faculty collectively undertook to redesign our professional graduate programs. The design was guided by a commitment to research informed and research active learning experiences that enable professionals to develop expertise, draw upon evidence, and act with integrity as they lead innovation and change in educational organizations. The program design provides professionals with opportunities to complete their graduate program in both blended and online formats. Degree programs are cohort based, discipline focused, and coherently structured. Many of our specialized topics are developed in partnership with the professions we serve, and each of our graduate programs is grounded in current research and engages students in active research-based learning. Participatory, collaborative, and interdisciplinary learning experiences are characterized by signature pedagogies. Our professional graduate programs create scholars of the profession through strong connections with the disciplines, communities, and professions we serve. Results of the redesign include improved results in student satisfaction, time to completion, increased retention, and have yielded high completion rates. Design knowledge and insights gained after eight years of evaluation document the strength and quality of our graduates and an increased proportion of international students in all of our graduate program areas.

In this case study research, we examine online supervision and engagements in a blended education doctorate (EdD) programme through a lens of relational trust. Interviews with supervisors and EdD graduates enabled us to examine practices and strategies used to cultivate relationships and learning alliances that supported doctoral candidates in conducting research and dissertation writing. We explored opportunities and challenges in fostering effective supervisory relationships online. Five enabling factors for cultivating effective online supervisory relationships address programme design, supervisors’ roles and responsibilities, and doctoral students’ experiences. Establishing relational trust and learning alliances in early and ongoing engagements in programme through to culminating milestones was vital for effective student-supervisor relationships.