Teacher Political Learning as Emergent Practice (Poster 25)

• In Event: Excellence in Education Research: Early Career Scholars and Their Work

Abstract

The Transdisciplinary Civic Learning Collaborative (TCLC) is a teacher-researcher collaborative space where teachers across subject areas and grade levels (K-12) design transdisciplinary civic learning units to explore civic questions across content area classes, working to transform learning possibilities for students, and in doing so, challenge the very nature of schooling. Contributing to questions about the political learning of teachers, and to better understanding the possibilities and potential of teacher learning in transdisciplinary, multi-grade teacher communities, this poster reflects early inquiry into the learning of this group, theorizing learning as emergent collective practice. We pursue two questions: 1) What is being learned in and by the TCLC as evidenced in emergent practice? 2) How are these practices learned and negotiated in a moment of tension or conflict? Based in social practice theory, we conceptualize learning as emergent practice. Drawing on data from two years of monthly virtual meetings, we identify four emergent practices that have come to cohere in the group: multi-vocality, interrogating boundaries, identity inquiry, and affective attunement. We trace the emergence of these practices through interactional episodes  in which conflict and tension suggested that shared norms of interaction and practice were under negotiation.

Author

• Emma Carene Gargroetzi, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author