Crafting Coherence to Support Elementary Teacher Transformation of Instructional Practice

• In Event: Organizational Dimensions of Instructional Leadership Implementation

Abstract

We report on an investigation of how the school leaders involved in one research-practice partnership engaged in the design and implementation of a coherent system of job-embedded learning supports for elementary teachers across five schools. The study departs from existing research by conceptualizing coherence as more than just surface-level alignment of school infrastructure and analyzing for how leaders craft both conceptual and structural coherence for teacher learning through their day-to-day practice. We identify leadership practices that fostered coherence and attended to both content-specific teacher learning (e.g., development of content knowledge) and to teachers’ development of connections across content (e.g., underlying vision of teaching and learning). The findings build theory about context-specific instructional leadership for transformation of teacher practice.

Authors

• Alison Fox Resnick, University of Washington - Seattle

• Rebecca Lewis, University of Washington - Seattle

• Elham Kazemi, University of Washington