Abstract:
Between March and April 2006, the Division of Professional Learning (DPL), Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney, conducted a Certificate of Primary Literacy Education. This consisted of a two-day 'Future Directions in Literacy Conference', followed by five, two-and-a-half-hour evening workshops, ranging in topic from 'Balanced Literacy' to 'Space to Play'. The DPL intended the certificate to provide literacy educators with the space and opportunity to share the latest research and best practice in literacy education and to have a shared public voice in the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy. Conference participants numbered approximately 150 and included postgraduate students, classroom teachers, assistant principals, literacy consultants, librarians and university academics. Twelve of this group also enrolled in all five evening workshops and successfully completed the certificate. This article shares the reflections of certificate participants on the content of the conference and evening workshops and how the professional development experience had a transformative influence on their knowledge, skills, attitudes, confidence, beliefs and/or teaching practice.