This issue of the journal takes as is starting point a global context, which has seen certain powerful and pervasive discourses underpinning a raft of educational reforms in a number of educational settings, in particular the United Kingdom, USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. These reforms have, among other things, been characterised by a rhetoric of devolution accompanied, ironically, by an assertion by the state and other central agencies of control over the what (curriculum) and how (pedagogy) of teaching, often driven by a "standards" agenda. These changes have had an enormous impact on the nature of teachers' work through the implementation of managerial organisational practices and other accountability mechanisms. It can be argued that in such a context, professional development, in being yoked to a reform agenda, has become little more than induction into ideological compliance. This issue seeks to bring together the voices of educational researchers and reflective teachers who have investigated the changing nature of professional development across a range of educational settings.