Network Logic - Index of

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