Co-Designing Responsive Literacy Instruction With Rural Elementary Teachers: A Professional Development Partnership

• In Event: Bridging and Connecting: Culturally Responsive Schooling

Abstract

This project studies ongoing collaborations with teachers in a literacy professional development (PD) partnership at an elementary school in a rural region of the mountain west. The partnership aims to provide place-based PD that supports teachers’ collective learning about instructional practices that address state policy mandates, while tailoring professional learning structures to the unique needs of educators in this particular rural context. In pursuing these objectives, we explore the following research questions: (a) How do elementary teachers and university researchers build partnership across geographic contexts toward collaborative school-embedded professional learning? How do the nuances of a particular rural context manifest through that process? (b) What motivations and curiosities fuel teachers in calibrating this PD to their particular needs and priorities?

Authors

• Olivia J Cox, University of Colorado - Boulder

• Elizabeth Dutro, University of Colorado - Boulder