Teacher Learning Through Collaborative Curriculum Design During a Pandemic: A Cultural Historical Activity Theory Investigation

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Teacher Struggle, Learning, and Transformation in a Pandemic

Abstract

Collaborative design, or co-design, is an effective form of professional development that promotes teacher learning. However, we know little about how teacher learning unfolds in co-design, especially during a crisis such as the pandemic. In this study, we used cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to investigate how teachers attempt to resolve systematic contradictions as they co-designed and enacted a four-week science unit on COVID-19. Our findings indicated that the teachers faced significant challenges in implementing the COVID-19 unit, and they were not able to resolve most of the contradictions on their own without a personal cost. Implications for how to support teacher professional learning in a crisis were discussed.

Authors

• Li Ke, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Patricia Friedrichsen, University of Missouri - Columbia

• Rebecca Rawson, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

• Troy D. Sadler, University Of North Carolina at Chapel Hill