Teacher professional learning is often disjointed and not aligned with the curricula teachers use in daily instruction. This lack of preparation has led to fragmented approaches to teaching young students to read, in part because initiatives lose momentum, teachers modify the instruction beyond recognition, and programs are soon eclipsed by newer…

Drawing on the work of Paulo Freire, Morrell argues for critical, humanizing inquiry spaces in which literacy teachers learn with and from one another. However, he points to critical race theory and poses important questions, for example, wondering whether empowered spaces for teachers are transferred into empowerment for students.

Under the leadership of State Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum, with the support of the South Carolina Department of Education's Division of Teaching Quality (DTQ) and the South Carolina Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement (CERRA), South Carolina became only the second state in the nation to study teacher…