Network Logic - Index of

Untangling the threads
Given the complexities, we decided to begin by studying two sites
that are, according to the national directors, particularly well
functioning. Both we and the directors wanted the study to focus on
sites that negotiated different geographical regions and socioeconomic
conditions. We settled on the site centred at University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), a decidedly urban setting, and one
centred at Oklahoma State University (OSU) in Stillwater, Oklahoma,
a site encompassing a mid-size city, small towns and rural areas. By
closely observing activities in both sites and interviewing directors
and participating teachers, we gleaned some important understanding
about the longevity and success of this professional
development initiative.
The five-week invitational institute
We were told by the NWP leadership, both national and site directors,
that we needed to attend and make sense of the five-week summer
invitational, the initiating experience for new NWP teachers, because
there lay ‘the heart of the writing project’. After we had seen the
institutes first-hand at both UCLA and OSU, we recognised that a
seamless set of activities unfolding over the five weeks succeeded in
galvanising a professional community. The ‘model’, as everyone called
it, has three interrelated features:
creating forms for teachers to teach one another their best
practices
providing opportunities for teachers to write and share in
response groups
engaging teachers in reading and discussing relevant
literature and research.
These seemingly straightforward ideas provide the frame for the fiveweek
institutes. As teachers teach and learn from one another’s
practice, write and share their writing, and read and discuss research,
they rotate through a series of roles. For examples, they become their
colleagues’ teachers when giving teaching demonstrations or
Demos 67