Extracts from : Collective Sense making about Reading: How Teachers Mediate Reading Policy in Their Professional Communities

Cynthia E. Coburn, University of Pittsburgh.

Constructing Understanding through Interpersonal Interaction:

When teachers came into contact with new messages about reading instruction, they often spent time with their colleagues constructing an understanding of what the messages meant.

Behaviours included:

Gatekeeping:

…Once teachers constructed an under- standing of what a given message was about, they either engaged with the idea or approach, or they dismissed it. In this way, teachers essentially selected some messages in and selected others out…

Does not apply to their grade level:

…teachers in different groups often constructed somewhat different conceptions of what was appropriate for a given grade level…

Too Difficult for their students:

…they often over ruled professional developers or new district standards as suggesting something they considered too difficult for their students…

Philosophically opposed:

…resources brought by individuals were sometimes rejected by others in the group because of philosophical opposition.

… Interestingly, what was considered philosophically problematic varied from group to group. ..

Completely outside the bounds of comprehensibility:

…Teachers also rejected messages about reading in conversation with their colleagues because they involved approaches that seemed inconceivable so far outside of the bounds of what they saw as appropriate-that they were not even worth considering…

Doesn't 'fit."

…teachers discussed whether or not and how new materials or approaches would fit with their individual and shared approaches. When these conversations did not produce a way to work new messages into preexisting programs, teachers selected those approaches out…

Unmanageable:

…Teachers rejected messages or approaches when they jointly decided that it was not possible to successfully implement them in the classroom because of time and other constraints, burdens of record keeping, or concern for behaviour management issues. ..

Didn’t feel they understood it:

…When there was no one in a group who understood particular language in the standards, particular approaches offered in professional development, or particular assessment instruments, the group tended to skip over them. ..