Writing for humanizing transformative professional learning and development

This multiple case study with US English language arts teachers was designed to understand writing teacher professional learning and development (PLD) through a humanising lens, considering the whole person rather than only the professional development content or design. Research questions explored experiences that contributed to teachers’ decisions to participate and stay engaged in a year-long PLD, in this socio-political moment, and how issues of responsibility, relationality, power, and ethics were experienced. We found humanising PLD infused with writing as both content and method builds professional networks, fosters shifts in teaching-learning power dynamics, sustains teachers, and is an act of resistance against push-out politics. In the discussion, we provide a model of Writing for Humanising Transformative PLD for teacher educators to support the continued survivance of teachers across the disciplines.