Designing Teacher Learning: A Case Study of Professional Development Facilitators’ Sensemaking and Collaborative Process

• In Event: Designing Professional Learning Communities That Center Educator Choice, Agency, and Well-Being

Abstract

The decision-making of professional development (PD) facilitators is consequential for teachers’ professional learning experiences; however, there is limited research on how PD facilitators’ sensemaking and sociocultural positioning intersect to shape PD design. This study examines five PD facilitators' decision-making practices through qualitative analyses of audio-recorded interviews, field notes of facilitator meetings, and PD artifacts. Findings reveal four factors—pedagogical and professional commitments, contextual knowledge, emerging tensions, and managing interpersonal dynamics—that shape PD facilitators’ design choices and how the collaborative and dialogic sensemaking of these factors informs their design decisions. This study advances a reimagining of PD facilitation as relational, adaptive, and central to building future-oriented teacher learning systems.

Authors

• Kayla Ueshiro, University of California - Irvine

• Christina Kimmerling, University of California - Irvine

• Rossella Santagata, University of California - Irvine