Curriculum, professional development, and leadership: The “pillars” in action at a rural elementary school working to improve reading instruction

Abstract

This study explores a school-based professional development (PD) partnership between elementary educators at a rural school in eastern Colorado and literacy researchers from a large flagship university. The partnership emerged during a distinctive moment in elementary reading policy, characterized by statewide top-down policy mandates connected to a body of research known as the Science of Reading (SOR). This study examines the research question: How do administrators, researchers, and teachers partner in revising instruction to implement SOR-inspired, state-mandated practices for teaching reading? Drawing on a range of theoretical traditions, including critical perspectives on policy and practitioner inquiry, I engaged in qualitative data collection and analysis across several data sources. Findings demonstrate how directing analytic attention toward organizational factors can resist deficit narratives about teachers and illuminate possibilities for more agentic positioning of teachers. This study has implications for future inquiry into the implementation of SOR policy, elucidating how a systems-level view of efforts to improve instruction can honor teachers’ agency, knowledge, and desire to grow their practice.