Professional Learning as Breaking Away: Discourses of Teacher Development Within Literacy Coaching Interactions

A techno-rational perspective of teaching and learning is common as teachers are increasingly inundated with messages of measurement, standardization, and accountability. Within this perspective, teacher development is seen as mastery of skills, teachers’ learning is conceptualized as linear with a predetermined and predictable trajectory, and the role of literacy coach is limited to supporting the implementation of best practices. In this article, the author employs a microethnographic approach to discourse analysis to explore how literacy coaches and teachers negotiate discourses of teacher development during coaching interactions. Findings highlight how dominant discourses of teacher development may constrain professional learning interactions. The author argues that a flexible view of teacher development as breaking away may foster more meaningful professional learning, support coaching relationships, and spur instructional innovation.