| For decades, the City of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools have been engaged in citywide and federal conversations regarding the most effective and efficient management of public education; these conversations have historically been closely tied to race. Under the guise of school improvement for the lowest performing schools, Detroit schools have been subject to restructuring that has led to a position of disenfranchisement in the form of reduced: pupil enrollment, monetary aid, and teaching staff. Neoliberal approaches to school reform with a focus on human capital, however, can involve engaging community stakeholders, such as parents and community members, in school governance and decision-making.;This study sought to examine, understand, and describe teachers' most salient experiences as participants in a TFA-university collaborative professional development emergency teacher licensure program. The research questions were: (a) What do teachers experience when engaging in a TFA-university collaborative professional development emergency teacher licensure program? and (b) What characteristics of the model and approach do teachers perceive as contributing to their learning in practice?;The primary source of data collection was qualitative interviews utilized to provide a descriptive analysis of teachers' experiences as participants in the Teacher Professional Development Program. Data included 24 in person teacher-participant interviews, portfolio artifacts, and researcher field observation debriefs and memos collected at various points during the Program. Five major themes emerged from this study based upon the teacher-participant responses: (a) openness to adapting other ways and methods of teaching, (b) a quick instinct to provide solutions to issues that may arise during classes, (c) the ability to transfer the ownership of learning to the students, (d) the ability to actively engage their students to interact in the classroom, and (e) flexibility to accommodate students who cannot understand the lessons.;As indicated in previous research, and confirmed within this study, TPD represents an important opportunity to identifying teachers' specific needs within their teaching contexts, and refining TPD programs to address these needs will serve to improve TPD programs and ultimately benefit students. Additionally, TPD can assist teachers in becoming more adaptive, by providing strategies and tools to improve their ability to respond to student needs by making in-class adjustments when necessary. TPD also has the ability to help teachers learn to empower, engage, and accommodate their students' in the learning process. |
