Educator Learning: Certainty or Untidy Diversity

Publication Date

12-2009

Type of Culminating Activity

Dissertation

Degree Title

Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction

Department

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies

Supervisory Committee Chair

William Parrett, Ph.D.

Abstract

This action research dissertation provided space for educators to conduct dialogue sessions around educational issues critical to professional learning communities. In a Collective Analysis of Data Session (CAoDS) participants addressed their level of reflective dialogue, deprivatization of practice, collective focus on student learning, collaboration, and shared norms and values. The study utilized an interpretive epistemology and documented episodes, contexts, and types of learning as articulated by participants in regards to the learning that occurred in burgeoning discourse communities.

Built on a previous literature review designed to explore, explain, and inquire into what steps might be taken to enable action research practices to be embraced and supported as a viable form of educator learning, the goal of this critical action research project was to document the influence of a collective analysis of data session and action planning on educators' learning of self, pedagogy and community. Research occurred from two positionalities (insider and outsider) and focused on educators as generators of local and public knowledge. Knowledge generation and learning are quintessential topics of consideration for the field of education. Conclusions were reached in the three broad categories of learning about self, learning about pedagogy and learning about community. The findings from this study hope to contribute to the broader discourse about educator knowledge within a professional learning community framework.

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