This article draws upon our experiences of participating in a Literacy Hub in South Africa. The aim is to describe and analyse how dialogue among grade 8 teachers in a Literacy Hub around literacy teaching practices might lead to professional development and deepen teachers’ understanding of literacy practices and teaching. Interviews and observations with eight teachers were conducted to understand their literacy practice. The result indicates that sustainable development is a process that takes time. Furthermore the study shows that the teachers relate to students’ context and own experiences as a means of introducing a topic. Some teachers also try to give the students access to cognitively demanding tasks, but mostly the tasks and the events in the classrooms are cognitively undemanding and context embedded. A conclusion is the importance of offering teachers examples of literacy practices and of making classroom literacy practice visible.