Changing the “Micros” of Teaching through Collaborative Inquiry: A Qualitative Case Study of Teacher-Led Professional Learning in an Urban School District

Abstract

Background:

Educator professional learning is an essential component of teacher policy aiming to both improve the quality of the workforce and retain high-quality staff, yet research has found mixed results in whether the professional learning teachers experience supports teachers in changing their instructional practices to meet student needs. Researchers have identified professional learning structures likely to be effective in changing teaching practices and improving student outcomes. Yet missing from these models of effective professional learning is an explicit focus on the role of teacher agency in influencing the uptake of new instructional practices.

Purpose:

This study seeks to understand the potential role of teacher agency as a component of effective professional learning by exploring the implementation of a teacher-led professional learning network in one urban school district. It examines to what extent and in what ways educators who participated in the professional learning made changes to classroom practice, and what aspects of the professional learning model shaped the nature of instructional changes that educators made.

Research Design:

Using an embedded qualitative case design, this study examines nine total teacher-led Learning Sites and Cohorts that the professional learning network implemented during the 2021–2022 and 2022–2023 school years. Data collected and analyzed included ethnographic observation field notes from each site session, artifacts collected during these observations, and interviews with site leaders and participants.

Conclusions:

The majority of educators who fully participated in the professional learning implemented a wide variety of small-scale changes to their classroom practice, which were inspired from collaboration with fellow educators, facilitated through protocols and facilitation strategies, and aligned with participants’ motivations to voluntarily attend sites and unique classroom contexts. Findings have implications for how local schools and districts can design professional learning opportunities that provide teachers agency in making changes that improve instructional practices and how future research might evaluate the efficacy of teacher-driven professional learning to capture the types of changes to practice and working conditions that educators made.