Rachel Wolkenhauer

Pushing the Envelope on What is Known about Professional Development: The Virtual School Experience

The purpose of this study was to understand the ways virtual school teachers experienced professional development framed as a year-long collaborative action research endeavour. These virtual school teachers taught completely online courses for a large virtual school and did not reside within the same geographical location. Thus, the professional development was supported by the use of various synchronous and asynchronous technology tools. This study provides insights into what constitutes powerful online professional learning opportunities not only for virtual school teachers, but for their traditional face-to-face school counterparts, as well as the ways synchronous and asynchronous technology tools can be utilized to scaffold professional learning.

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar.

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators.

Exploring the Connections Between Action Research and Teacher Leadership: A Reflection on Teacher-Leader Research for Confronting New Challenges

ABSTRACT This reflective article examines the relationship between teachers’ engagement in action research and their ability to lead within their schools. As part of The New Educator’s special issue, “Developing an Inquiry Stance toward Instructional Improvement: Teacher-Leader Action Research,” this article demonstrates the development of an inquiry stance. It shares the story of two practicing teacher leaders within the new and challenging circumstance of adjusting to, and studying, the professional development they provided to help teachers deal with a challenging transition to a radically different school space. This article examines the ways practitioner inquiry supported these teachers to be leaders in the new architectural space designed to promote innovative instruction for twenty-first-century teaching and learning. We posit that coupling teacher leadership and teacher research enables teachers (a) to lead with literature, (b) to lead from data, (c) to lead through sharing, and (d) to lead by example.

Making the Common Core Come Alive Through Inquiry: Lessons Learned

The Common Core State Standards are a big deal. . . . The Standards represent the most sweeping reform of the K–12 curriculum that has ever occurred in this country. . . . It must be teachers and principals who figure out methods for implementing these standards. . . . You and the others who know your school well will, in the end, need to be the ones to determine your particular pathway to implementing the Common Core.