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Abstract
This design-based research (DBR) study investigates how a professional learning workshop (PLW) focused on developing teacher participants’ disciplinary literacy instructional capabilities through the integration of instructional approaches and children’s picturebooks can support disciplinary literacy in the disciplinary of history in the elementary classroom. This study examines which components of the designed PLW contributed to teachers’ disciplinary literacy learning and how teachers experienced the process of applying the PLW content in their instructional practice. Grounded in a multi-phase, iterative DBR framework, this study included the development, implementation, and refinement of the PLW over two cycles. Data sources included focus group interviews, classroom observation-reflection cycles, classroom documents, student artifacts, and unsolicited comments from teacher participants. Findings indicate the PLW supported teachers in deepening their understanding of disciplinary literacy and intentionally using picturebooks to design and implement related lessons. Teachers benefited from collaborative learning, time to analyze picturebooks, opportunities to apply instructional approaches, and space for reflection. Despite experiencing both successes and challenges, teachers’ reflections and instructional artifacts showed growing confidence and instructional shifts that centered disciplinary literacy through picturebooks. The findings emphasize the importance of learning opportunities that are directly connected to teachers' everyday classroom practice and that blend theory, practice, and collaboration. The study offers insights into how carefully designed professional learning can help elementary school teachers develop their disciplinary literacy instructional capabilities in the discipline of history through implementing children’s literature and developmentally appropriate instructional approaches. It also contributes to research on how DBR can support the iterative improvement of professional learning experiences and offers implications for literacy researchers, teacher educators, and elementary school teachers.