ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the classroom practices of teachers who stood out among their peers. Their uncommon pedagogies included commonly used approaches, such as various types of group work and specific techniques for teaching literacy. The standout teachers responded effectively to opportunities to tailor their teaching to the moment, but their overall approach was informed by an expanded and expansive view of literacy. They worked to develop and sustain mutual trust in their classrooms, openness to diversity and a belief in each student’s capacity to learn. Teacher professionalism does not count as being able to produce evidence-based practice. Teachers’ own histories impact on their interpretive resources for reading, understanding and enacting school policy, whether that might be behaviour, literacy or dress codes. Teachers’ logics of practice were more commonly underpinned by deficit assumptions about children and families living in poverty, which generally limited or provided weak opportunities for learning.
