Geography Teachers’ Networks as Platforms for Continuous Professional Development: Experience from the Netherlands and Czechia

The quality of education is highly dependent on well-educated, experienced, and competent teachers, which are key to improving learning and learners’ performance. However, good teaching requires complex cognitive skills. The initial preservice education of geography teachers can only provide them with some of the competencies and knowledge they will need for their professional careers. Teachers then face intense demands to update their knowledge and skills in various continuous professional development courses that are often short-term and passive. However, there is a growing awareness of the potential of long-term teacher-centered programs enhancing teacher collaboration—teachers’ networks. Teachers’ networks are a form of continuous professional development (CPD) that gives teachers a voice in setting the agenda: they take into account teachers’ interests and experiences, foster their competence development (attitudes, knowledge, skills) in pedagogy, subject content, and subject didactics. This chapter presents the general principles of organizing teachers’ networks in the broader context of teachers’ CPD and explains networks’ potential for the increasing professionalization of in-service teachers. These principles are illustrated by exemplary activities from two long-lasting teachers’ networks in Prague (Czechia) and Tilburg (the Netherlands).