Transformative Professional Development: Negotiating Knowledge with an Inquiry Stance

The South Carolina Reading Initiative is a statewide, long-term, site-based professional development project designed to improve children’s literacy achievement by increasing teachers’ knowledge of reading and literacy instruction. Three specific bodies of research informed this project: (1) research on effective staff development, (2) research on teacher quality and (3) research on best practices in English Language Arts. The program is grounded in social constructivist theory and inquiry-based pedagogy. Five data-driven stories, spanning various iterations of this learner-centered initiative, illustrate the transformative nature of this approach to professional development.