Network Logic - Index of
Network Logic - Index of
Network Logic - Index of
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<strong>Network</strong> logic<br />
presenting their own practice, by listening to others, by reading and<br />
discussing research and literature together, by being in a group, by<br />
taking responsibility for the groups’ needs, and by taking risks<br />
together. In short, they are learning how to be members <strong>of</strong> a<br />
democratic community that values them, their knowledge and their<br />
continued growth.<br />
In this article we have discussed the site as a local network<br />
embedded in a national network bringing its group <strong>of</strong> teachers into a<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>essional community that respects the variety <strong>of</strong> ways that<br />
teachers learn. But the magic <strong>of</strong> the writing project is that all these<br />
things are tightly integrated into an experience that socialises teachers<br />
into a new way <strong>of</strong> thinking about themselves as teachers. While the<br />
social practices provide the core, the network-like way <strong>of</strong> organising<br />
helps develop a local constituency. Untangling these threads has<br />
helped us to see a powerful model for pr<strong>of</strong>essional development and<br />
yet another way to develop a pr<strong>of</strong>essional community situated in<br />
teachers’ practice.<br />
Ann Lieberman is an emeritus pr<strong>of</strong>essor at Teachers College, Columbia<br />
University, and a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the<br />
Advancement <strong>of</strong> Teaching. Diane R Wood is an assistant pr<strong>of</strong>essor in the<br />
Educational Leadership Program, College <strong>of</strong> Education and Human<br />
Development, University <strong>of</strong> Southern Maine. This essay is an edited<br />
version <strong>of</strong> an article that first appeared as ‘Untangling the threads:<br />
networks, community and teacher learning in the National Writing<br />
Project’, Teachers and Teaching 8, no 3–4 (2002), pp 295–302.<br />
Notes<br />
1 A site in the NWP grows out <strong>of</strong> a university–school partnership. The university<br />
is the ‘owner’ <strong>of</strong> the site. Beginning sites receive $20,000 and must document<br />
their plans and their work and keep accurate information about who<br />
participates and the nature <strong>of</strong> their formats for work during the year. The<br />
programme is sponsored by the federal government.<br />
2 This paper quotes liberally from A Lieberman and D Wood, Inside the National<br />
Writing Project: network learning and classroom teaching – a new synthesis (New<br />
York:Teacher College Press, 2003).<br />
3 J Adams, Taking Charge <strong>of</strong> Curriculum: teacher networks and curriculum<br />
74 Demos