Bringing it all home: using local resources in teachers’ professional development

Abstract

Abstract Teachers need opportunities to explore the communities in which they teach to understand how the local contexts can be used to enhance the curriculum. Professional development that focuses on ways to integrate local primary sources into the social studies curriculum can help teachers plan authentic lessons for students to learn about their community. This qualitative study examined how nine social studies teachers who participated in a professional development program on place-based education made linkages between local and global events in their unit planning. Semi-structured interviews, field notes, and lesson plans were analyzed to learn how a professional development program impacted teachers’ practice. Findings indicate that most teachers were able to design and implement units that either explicitly or implicitly connected global events to local experiences. Results suggest that instructional shifts are required to help teachers design inquiry-based instruction to understand how to use local primary sources to open up spaces for students to ask questions about their communities.