This study examines the relationship between teachers’ writing experiences and "transformative" professional development. The notion that writing might possess transformative power spans academic disciplines and popular culture, as seen, for instance, in the scholarship on writing-to-learn, research on writing’s physiological and psychological benefits, or in the many self-help books advocating writing as a tool for overcoming life problems. Meanwhile, over the more than thirty years of professional development institutes conducted by sites of the National Writing Project, many participants have claimed, both in their own publications and in research studies, that their experiences in such institutes "changed my life" or were "transformative." This study asks two central questions: first, if transformations are occurring, what are those transformations like; what transforms, exactly, and how? Are these processes akin to those described in Mezirow’s (1991) theory of transformative learning? Second, given that writing has often been thought to foster transformation and given that NWP Summer Institutes are writing-intensive environments (in which participants spend much of their time engaged in writing of their own in addition to talking and thinking about writing and its teaching), what role, if any, might writing itself play in these transformations? 

Seven K--12 teachers discussed their writing and their learning experiences in two interviews during one NWP Summer Institute, and their activities were observed through participant observation. Writing samples were collected, as were application essays and reflective writing. These data were analyzed as individual cases and in parallel, and the resulting pattern is presented toward a model of teacher transformation in a writing-intensive setting: phases included triggers, accepting the invitation to write, self-examination, reframing, resolving to reorient, trying new roles, building confidence and competence through new roles and relationships, and living in the new frame. Writing played a particularly vital role in self-examination, trying new roles, and building confidence and competence. Writing groups functioned as "audience workshops" in which both written compositions and the compositions of self-presentation were worked out. The study also suggests that self-monitoring was heightened through the writing group and in turn contributed to participants’ transformative learning.

Abstract

The purpose of this ethnographic study of a five- week long Summer Institute of the South Coast Writing Project was to develop grounded theoretical constructs about how what counted as teacher professional development was socially constructed and situationally defined by the members of this writing project culture. This dissertation builds on research that views classrooms as cultures (Collins & Green, 1990; 1992; Green, Kantor, & Rogers, 1991) and extends the research on the social construction of knowledge (Brilliant-Mills, 1993; Floriani, 1993; Heras, 1993; Lin, 1993; Santa Barbara Classroom Discourse Group), by conceptualizing teacher professional development as a process that occurs as teachers interact with others and materials over time (Marshall, 1995).

By conducting an interactional ethnographic study of the Summer Writing Project Institute utilizing an interactive-responsive approach (Spradley, 1980; Zahaerlick & Green, 1991) for collecting and analyzing the data, this study explored how discourse practices form the basis for teacher professional development. Analysis made visible the way the continuity of events and the social interactions that made up these events provided members with opportunities for professional development.

The analyses presented further suggested that only by focusing on professional development over time can researchers begin to understand the intertextual and intercontextual nature of professional development. These constructs provide the base for a professional development continuum, which is not only longitudinal and lateral, but as analyses showed, circular, because of the reflexive nature of social interaction. It was through talk that opportunities for development were created, roles and relationships were established, and what counted as professional development in this community was defmed.

This study contributes to the understanding of how those interested in providing transformative professional development opportunities for teachers can construct these opportunities over time and how these opportunities shape and are shaped by the discourse system of the culture. Implications for theory and research on professional development are discussed.

Abstract