Teachers\u27 perceptions of themselves as writers and teachers of writing: Changes in conjunction with a professional development experience

Teachers are an integral factor in student learning. The ways in which teachers appropriate the changes in their beliefs and conceptual frameworks in their teaching as a result of professional development is not as well documented in literacy as it is in mathematics. This qualitative study of a K–8 school district in the Northeast contributes to this body of knowledge by exploring how teachers\u27 perceptions of themselves as writers and teachers of writing change in conjunction with their participation in two graduate courses on the teaching of writing. The graduate courses were anchors for sustained professional development. The study also traces the growth of the resulting professional learning community. The study answers the central questions: How do teachers who participate in professional development course(s) perceive changes in themselves as writers and teachers of writing? To what extent and in what ways do they become a professional learning community? Through observation of teacher interactions and project presentations in the graduate classes, as well as analysis of surveys completed by the participants, review of course documents, review of participants\u27 online responses, and interviews with the professors, I trace the changes in teachers\u27 perceptions of themselves as writers and teachers of writing and their growth from a group of teachers in the same graduate course to a professional learning community in which members support one another\u27s learning and begin to question their assumptions about teaching. In addition, in-depth study of a subset of teachers which included observations of their writing classes, post-observation reflections, and interviews provided me further insight into how these teachers enacted their beliefs about teaching writing in their classrooms. Useful to the analysis of the data were theories on teacher knowledge described by Cochran-Smith and Lytle (1999) as for, in, and of practice as well as other theories on teacher professional development, professional learning communities, and writing. Last, I examine multiple facets of my role as a K–8 literacy leader and district administrator (supervisor) in supporting teachers\u27 learning in conjunction with my immersion in the study