The return of the prodigal son: the experience of support agents on their return from Teachers’ Centers to school

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a two‐year qualitative inquiry, carried out in Spain, on a rather neglected side of external support to schools: the personal and professional experience of external support agents when they go back to teaching. These ex‐advisers are career teachers who return ‘home’ to school after having left it to serve for some years in Teachers’ Centers, which in Spain are the institutions in charge of school support and in‐service teacher training. During their stay there, the ex‐advisers have developed a new discourse on teaching, on school organization and on teacher training that, on their return, they have to contrast with their everyday life in schools. To explore this process, the conceptions, perceptions and visions of these professionals, has a high potential to throw some light on school support, in‐service teacher training and the construction and reconstruction of different professional identities within our educational systems.