Inquiry-Based Teacher Writing Groups as Sites for Professional Learning and Restorying Identities

Abstract

In this article, we use narrative inquiry to examine one teacher’s experiences of participating in an inquiry-based teacher writing group. Narrative inquiry centers teachers’ stories, revealing the complexities of teaching and writing identities. We argue that, despite the “cover story” of a binary writing identity, teachers’ stories about their lives and their practice reveal much more complex writing and teaching identities. Inquiry-based professional learning experiences invite teachers to bring in their lived experiences and collaborate with one another to (re)story themselves as professionals, writers, and teachers of writing. Rewriting these identities and crafting new storied selves is an important part of professionalizing teaching, fostering teacher agency and supporting sustained professional learning. The findings demonstrate the need for a re-envisioning of teachers’ positioning in professional learning, restructuring professional development to value the work teachers can produce together when given an opportunity to engage as learners in their everyday school contexts.