Recognizing the critical role teachers play in increasing students’ literacy achievement, research indicates that providing teachers with generative, school-based, sustained professional development positively impacts instruction and subsequently improves learning (Skerrett et al., 2018). GPD is an approach to enhance teachers’ learning and pedagogical practices while increasing students’ achievement (Flint et al., 2018). Through GPD, teachers develop and implement evidence-based literacy lessons and assessments, engage in action research, and reflect on their teaching and learning. Numerous studies highlight that through GPD, teachers learn new instructional practices, develop confidence, adopt additive views of students, and improve student achievement outcomes (Author; Flint et al., 2018).

            Arnetha Ball’s work with professional learning communities in South Africa plays an important role in understanding GPD and teacher learning. In her longitudinal study, Ball (2009) coined the term generative change to describe teachers’ process of ongoing learning. She explained that learning becomes generative when teachers make connections with their students’ lived experiences and design instruction based on the relationship between professional knowledge, personal knowledge, and knowledge gained from students. Ball (2009) acknowledges the importance of teachers’ life stories and professional experiences along with tapping into metacognitive awareness and exploring one’s shifting ideologies as essential to the process of generative learning. Leaning on generative learning theories and the research on GPD, in my research I seek to understand what teachers learn and how they adapt and implement instruction based on the relationship between their identities, professional experiences, and knowledge gained from students.