Teachers Learning Communities: Catalyst for Change or a new Infrastructure for the Status Quo?

The article explored four themes:

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Defining and fostering Teacher agency Determining purposes for Teacher collaboration Tracking the challenges to, and impact on district cultures Identifying, enabling and constraining institutional and policy conditions

The Learning Communities Project was implemented to improve student learning ,at the same time as the Education Department had put school districts with low test scores on notice (Empowerment District). If scores didn t go up then management of the schools would go to the states. Learning Communities would replace traditional PDs, this was to enhance expertise within the school community by sharing experiences, skills and knowledge and working collaboratively to change practice and improve student learning. Positive developments:
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Collaborative development of protocols to address collaborative possibilities Teachers were given time for collaboration Teachers were trained as coaches and became leaders A second round of the initiative was joined by another district Teachers had more collegial conversations There was more feedback on professional performance from colleagues and useful suggestions to improve practices More of Teachers discussions focussed on student work samples, assignments and lesson plans Teachers discussed dilemmas of practice Increased trust among colleagues Better understanding of how to meet student needs An environment that was more conducive to risk taking and innovation Greater sense of professional efficacy to improve student learning

Challenges:
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Staff members felt under increasing pressure to perform Sometimes staff members didn t make a connection between LCs and student performance Some Teachers felt overwhelmed by the pressure to change practice as more experienced Teachers had seen many initiatives and changes Preventing the LCs from becoming a dumping session Eventually Teachers didn t have a choice about their involvement with an LC, it was imposed on them