Cultivating self in the context of transformative professional development/ created by A. Susan Jurow

In this study, the author combines insights from ethnography and discourse analysis to examine how a model of selfhood was cultivated through the social practices of a transformative professional development program for urban public school leaders. Participants were introduced to the notion of an inner self that is knowing, vulnerable, and connected to others through (a) the modeling of multiple ways of talking about an inner self, (b) ritual experience of self in relation to others, and (c) the connection of self to a natural order. Taken together, the author found that the social practices of the retreat aimed to reposition the school leaders to try on new ways of seeing themselves both personally and professionally. This study contributes to our nascent understandings of both the practices and potential of transformative professional development.