The research cited in this paper is derived from a 2-year study of a professional development initiative in literacy with faculty members from an elementary school in an economically impoverished urban community. The paper explains that the study observed what a long-term, participatory, and voluntary professional development program constructed around theories of critical literacy looked like in actual practice. The paper's research was largely concerned with examining the evolving knowledge of the teachers as they worked together towards enacting critical approaches to reading, writing, and assessment in their respective classrooms. It states that the primary data reported addresses the negotiation of "place" between the teachers involved in the study and the parents of the children they taught. Contains 15 references. (Author/NKA)