Grassroots Professional Literacy Learning: An Analytic Review of Qualitative Research in the Area

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 39
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Leaders (Re)Imagining Professional Learning Opportunities

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to review what is reported in the qualitative empirical literature about the ways in which teachers engage in grassroots professional learning in relation to literacy instruction. “Grassroots,” for the purposes of this paper, refers to professional learning opportunities that are generated purposefully by and through the authentic daily work of teacher leaders. Drawing on the literature on mandated professional learning policies in the U.S. and teacher leadership, this review uses social learning theory to identify how K-12 teachers engage in grassroots professional learning for literacy instruction. This paper describes how teachers engage in grassroots professional learning by learning through analysis, learning through doing, and learning through sharing.

Author

• Heather A. Frank, Montclair State University