Session Information
WERA SES 01 C, International Perspectives on Communities of Learning in Teacher Education
Paper session
Contribution
Topic: Over the past quarter century, local school systems and schools in several countries around the world have been increasingly pressured by local, regional, and national government policies to motivate and support teacher learning in order to transform classroom teaching and student learning. In this changed education sector, local policymakers and school leaders are mostly left to design and redesign their system and school organizational infrastructures in order to support teacher learning about teaching. One popular strategy in several countries in these efforts is Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Our paper explores the design and workings of a Professional Learning Community (PLC) organizational routine intended to support teachers’ on-the-job learning about teaching. We examine the designe and implementation of the PLC routine and show how participation in the routine transformed teachers’ learning about teaching.
Research Question: How do school system and school leaders design and implement a Professional Learning Community (PLC) routine in order to support teachers' on the job learning about teaching? How does the PLC routine influence teachers' interactions and learning about teaching?
Objective: Our objectives in this theory building empirical work are twofold: First, to theorize how bureaucratic and collegial structures interact in the implementaiton and performance of a bureaucratically mandated and structured PLC organizational routine that inherently relies on a collegial structure in order to support teacher learning about teaching. Second, to examine whether and how the PLC organizational routine shaped school leaders and teachers on the job learning about teaching.
Conceptual and Theoretical Framing: The research reported here is conceptually framed with three literatures - work on teacher learning, Professional Learning Communities, and organizational routines: Teachers learn and develop new knowledge through their everyday encounters with colleagues (Coburn, 2001; Little, 1990), and this on-the-job learning from peers can positively influence teachers’ classroom productivity, as measured by student achievement (Jackson & Bruegmann, 2009). One popular strategy for enabling teacher learning on the job is Professional Learning Communities (PLC). Though the conceptualization and measurement of PLCs vary in the literature (), scholars identify five essential characteristics of PLCs (Bolam, McMahon, Stoll, Thomas, & Wallace, 2005; Louis, Kruse, & Bryk, 1995; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001; Newmann,Marks, & Gamoran, 1996): (1) Ongoing collaborations among school staff; (2) Constantly focusing on student learning; (3) De-privatizing classroom instruction; (4) Reflective deliberations focused on curriculum, teaching, and student learning; and (5) Shared norms of collective responsibility for student learning. These characteristics distinguish PLCs from ‘pseudo-communities’ (Grossman, Wineburg, & Woolworth, 2001) where a “culture of niceness” (Hargreaves, 2000, p. 812) pervades interactions among peers and “contrived collegiality” (Hargreaves & Dawe, 1990, p. 230) is the standard operating procedure (Achinstein, 2002; Horn, 2005; Pfeiffer & Featherstone, 1996). Indeed there is some evidence that creating PLCs and participation in PLCs is associated with changes in school culture and teaching practice (for review, see Vescio et al., 2008). We can conceptualize PLCs as organizational routines. Analytically, organizational routines such as PLCs have n ostensive and a performative aspect (Feldman & Pentland, 2003; Latour, 1986). The ostensive aspect refers to “the ideal or schematic form of a routine…the abstract, generalized idea of the routine,” (Feldman & Pentland, 2003, p. 101) that more or less enables and constrains practice. The performative aspect refers to “the routine in practice,” as people co-perform the routine at particular times and in particular places (Feldman & Pentland, 2003, p. 101). In order to understand the implementation of organizational routines such as PLCs, and whether and how they influence everyday practice in schools, it is important to attend to both the ostensive and performative aspects.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Achinstein, B. (2002). Conflict and community: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration. Teachers College Record, 104(3), 421-455. Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Stoll, L., Thomas, S., & Wallace, M. (2005). Creating and sustaining effective professional learning communities. London, England: General Teaching Council for England, Department for Education and Skills. Borgatti, S. P., Everett, M. G., & Freeman, L. C. (2002). UCINET 6 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis (Version 6) [Social Network Analysis Software]. Harvard, MA: Analytic Technologies. Coburn, C. E. (2001). Collective sensemaking about reading: How teachers mediate reading policy in their professional communities. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(2), 145-170. Dekker, D., Krackhardt, D., & Snijders, T. A. B. (2007). Sensitivity of MRQAP tests to collinearity and autocorrelation conditions. Psychometrika, 72(4), 563-581. Eraut, M., & Hirsh, W. (2007). The significance of workplace learning for individuals, groups, and organizations. Oxford, UK: SKOPE. Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing organizational routines as a source of flexibility and change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48(1), 94-118. Grossman, P. L., Wineburg, S., & Woolworth, S. (2001). Toward a theory of teacher community. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 942-1012. Hargreaves, A., & Dawe, R. (1990). Paths of professional development: Contrived collegiality, collaborative culture, and the case of peer coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 6(3), 227-241. Horn, I. S. (2005). Learning on the job: a situated account of teacher learning in high school mathematics departments. Cognition and Instruction, 23(2), 207-236. Jackson, K., & Bruegmann, E. (2009). Teaching students and teaching each other: The importance of peer learning for teachers. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 1(4), 85-108. Latour, B. (1986). The powers of association. In J. Law (Ed.), Power, action, and belief: A new sociology of knowledge? Boston, MA: Routledge. Lazega, E. (2001). The collegial phenomenon: The social mechanisms of cooperation among peers in a corporate law partnership. Oxford, UK: Oxford Uniersity Press. Little, J. W. (1990). The persistence of privacy: Autonomy and initiative in teachers' professional relations. Teachers College Record, 91(4), 509-536. Sleegers, P., den Brok, P. J., Verbiest, E., & Moolenaar, N. M. (2013). Toward conceptual clarity. The Elementary School Journal, 114(1), 118-137. Vescio, V., Ross, D., & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 80-91.
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