A study analyzed the discourse and content of a staff development process designed to introduce research-based understandings of reading comprehension into teachers' thinking and practices. Thirty-nine fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade teachers in the Southwest participated in videotaped staff development workshops. Results indicated that creating an empowering educational environment in which the participants own the content of the process takes time, and involves breaking norms related to the expectations for the staff development process, on both the staff developers' and teachers' part, and towards teachers talking about beliefs and practices with their fellow teachers. Results further indicated that lecture 2 (a formal presentation about a practice that grows out of a discussion, and is not prepared for in advance) was the most effective means of introducing new knowledge and practices into the conversation, and suggests that the staff developer must have an enormous amount of content knowledge at his or her fingertips, and be prepared to present it extemporaneously. (Four figures and 2 tables of data are included; 32 references and 1 appendix detailing a conversation by participants are attached.) (PRA)