Is epistemic orientation the chicken or the egg in professional development for knowledge generation approaches?

Professional development has been marginally successful at encouraging the knowledge generation approaches promoted in international education policy. To explore whether increased attention to teachers' epistemic orientations might suggest necessary innovations existing professional routines, an explanatory sequential mixed-methods analysis was conducted inside a three-year program for in-service elementary science teachers two U.S. states. Findings that influenced their willingness engage with approaches, challenge teacher educators’ claims, and implement classrooms, indicating interrelated relationship between these factors. Implications design recruitment are discussed.