“They Speak the Same Language as Me!” The Impact of Affordances on the Identities of Teacher Leaders of Diverse Learners

Abstract

The Diverse Learners Cooperative (DLC) is a small, non-profit organization in Nashville, TN that works with school districts, schools, and teachers to help them support their exceptional education (EE) and English learner (EL) students. Given that the goals of the DLC’s annual Teacher Leader Fellowship are to deepen the teachers’ commitments to their roles as EE or EL teachers and broaden teacher networks amongst such teachers, this study analyzes how participating in the Teacher Leader Fellowship contributes to the development of the fellows’ identities as teacher leaders who serve diverse learners. Through semi-structured interviews with the Fellows, this qualitative study examines what affordances the DLC provided through the Teacher Leader Fellowship, in what ways the Fellows took advantage of those affordances, and ultimately what acting on those affordances allowed the Fellows to do and become. The kind of teacher leader that the Fellowship aspires to develop is one who takes an inquiry stance, seeks to self-improve, and values exchanging ideas and resources with other educators rather than working in isolation. The Teacher Leader Fellowship made available three types of affordances (institutional affordances, resource affordances, and interactional affordances) that allowed the Fellows to engage deeply with content, enact target practices, and build a network with other teachers of diverse learners, all of which resulted in the Fellows’ confirmation of their identities as teacher leaders of diverse leaders. The intentional planning and design of professional development, coaching, and learning tasks afford the fellows the opportunity to become ideal teacher leaders of diverse learners. As a result of designing and implementing Impact Projects, Fellows reported identifying more as advocates for their students than they had prior to the Fellowship.