"It’s like a puzzle with a million pieces”: The Productive Possibilities of Conflict in a Teacher Inquiry Group

• In Event: Equity Across Multiple Disciplines and Contents

Abstract

Little research exists to suggest how teachers respond to discipline-specific literacy expectations (Moje, Stockdill & Kim, et al, 2011), and few opportunities exist for teachers to collaboratively explore literacy in the disciplines (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). This practitioner research is situated in a teacher inquiry group, and examines the discourses teachers draw on when talking about literacy and history. It is designed to recognize teachers as theorizers and practitioners of teaching and learning literacy in the context of history education. It also confronts and provides evidence of the generative potential of conflict in collaboration, suggesting that teachers’ professional development is both embedded in their individual lived experiences, and enhanced by their interactive intellectual struggles around what it means to teach.

Author

• Carmela Gustafson, Teachers College, Columbia University