Brokering District Instructional Initiatives and Classroom Needs: Evidence from an Educator-Led Professional Learning Network

Abstract

This embedded qualitative case study examines how a teacher-led educator network in a diverse urban school district balanced district equity-focused instructional priorities while creating space for educators to address equity-focused problems of practice they identified within their own teaching contexts. Through analyzing observation, interview, and document data from six professional learning sites within the network, findings show that sites bridged district initiatives and educators’ classroom-situated needs through context-focused boundary practices guided by brokers with context expertise. Implications for how districts implementing new instructional or curricular reforms can create non-hierarchical spaces for district-wide teacher learning are discussed.

Keywords

teacher professional development urban education qualitative school reform

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