The Portfolio Group

Mapping the Journey of Collaborative Reflective Practices through Traveling Journals

Abstract
In the proposed paper, we share the development and evolution of several teacher researchers as individuals and as an organized teacher research group involved in a local national reform movement. Since 1998, we have created school portfolios, have participated in Critical Friends Groups (often simultaneously), and most recently, have engaged in a funded teacher research project in which we experimented with traveling journals as inquiry tools and forms of documentation to assist us in our individual and collective “move[ment] toward improved…reflective practice” (Schwab, 1958). This paper, which is methodological as well as substantive in nature, outlines what traveling journals are, and the ways in which our traveling reflections and discussions impacted our thinking, teaching, scholarship, and shared portfolio work.

The paper is complete and uploaded for the discussant and we are all off to NYC.

Today was the presentation and it was a full house. The room was spilling out to the hall and over 10 people were sitting on the floor. Paul, Donna, and myself did an excellent job representing the hard work of the group. The concept, content and context of the collaboration, reflection and documentation was really appreciated and valued.

Paul did a great job with the research theory that grounded the work. Donna did a great job of teasing out the limitations and discoveries of the collaborative work (plus the powerpoint). And of course I did a great job (haha) highlighting the three emergent themes in the current work.

I believe we could write more from the journals.

More on AERA later - Thanks everyone for all the hard work and wish everyone could be here.