Teachers' professional development as enabling and constraining dialogue and meaning-making in Education for All

This article provides reflections on the articles in this special issue on Education for All. The paper draws on the Nordic educational tradition, especially the manner in which action research can function as an arena and means for teachers’ professional development. Both the cases presented and the theoretical perspectives used, educative praxis and practice architectures, are related to and discussed in terms of dialogue and collaborative meaning-making, which are understood as the core practices of the Nordic tradition of action research. By doing this, the scope of teachers’ professional action and development expands, and comes to encompass various personal and particularly political aspects, immanent to education practices. Thereby teachers’ professional practice and development, especially when it comes to Education for All, are to take place on arenas and within practices characterised by respect, reciprocity and shared responsibilities.