Unscripted Possibilities

“Unscripted Possibilities” examines the potential for change that emerges in rural environments that are affected by poverty and educational reforms that ignore the specific contexts of rural schools. Using a National Writing Project program, the College, Career, and Community Writers Program as case, we argue that professional learning relationships that are characterized by mutuality and indeterminacy create changes in teacher practice and school culture. Our analysis adapts concepts from Anna Tsing’s (2015)The Mushroom at the End of the World to uncover hopeful possibilities in damaged school environments.

Moving teachers to the center of school improvement

Teachers have historically been at the margins of educational improvement, and they are just beginning to drive improvements in the profession. Networked improvement communities (NICs) are one approach for collective reprofessionalization of teaching, where practice is defined and managed by practitioners. Edit Khachatryan and Emma Parkerson offer insight into the social organization of a NIC and use two real and mature networks — the Network to Transform Teaching and the National Writing Project — to describe how NICs structure roles and relationships and foster vital norms and identities among professionals.

VIRTUAL WRITING FORUM WITH DON MURRAY AND THE NATIONAL WRITING PROJECT IN AN ASYNCHRONOUS ENVIRONMENT

This study evaluated the level of participation and perceptions of effectiveness and value among participants in a virtual forum interacting with one another and with Donald Murray, a noted mentor in writing instruction. National Writing Project teacher consultants were invited to participate in a two-week interactive session using Caucus®, a non-threaded, World Wide Web-based, asynchronous computer conferencing system. Eighty-one teacher-consultants responded and participated in the event. Using a multiple perspective framework, data gathered through surveys, interviews, transcript analysis and online discussions suggest that participants, project coordinators and directors, as well as the author himself, found the event a valuable learning experience with interesting possibilities.

The History of the National Writing Project

The National Writing Project (NWP) is a network of professional development sites focusing on the improvement of writing across schools and communities. Its origins as the Bay Area Writing Project led to a professional development model of teachers teaching teachers, a concept that hinges upon recognition of teachers’ knowledge and their capacity to become leaders within their professional community. In the ensuing years, with early financial support from the US government in the form of an initial grant and an eventual direct federal line item, the NWP expanded from one location to over 200 local sites across the USA’s 50 states and territories as well as international sites. These US and international sites, created in partnership with local universities or colleges, offer localized support to teachers of writing. The project’s model involves an intensive summer institute in which teachers spend their time writing, reading, and sharing their knowledge about writing practices and teaching. While its focus is on the teaching of writing across all levels and disciplines, the project has become a model example of a professional learning and development network. As such, the NWP has created a legacy in teacher learning and development that many within the field of teacher professional development wish to emulate. An examination of this history, highlighting the project’s beginnings within the Bay Area Writing Project and its eventual expansion, speaks to the vision that has driven its success.