An activist democratic model of teacher professional learning: The teaching and learning caskets imaginarium 1

This chapter explores and theorises an original model of teacher professional learning that emerged from a well-established partnership between university academics and secondary school English teachers in Sydney, Australia. The Imaginarium model, of which the Teaching and Learning Caskets Imaginarium is the most recent iteration, is predicated on the belief that engaging teachers’ unique subjectivities is a necessary condition for building and sustaining their professional identity, expertise and agency. The concept of the Imaginarium emerged organically from the Shakespeare Reloaded project in response to teachers’ interest in creating a visible space for educators to participate in an intellectual and imaginative exchange of ideas about their work and lives as teachers. The feedback and evaluations from participants attest to the generative affordances of what can be understood as professional identity work. The Imaginaria have remained consistently popular with teachers within and beyond Barker College because the experience is unquestionably authentic for participants.