Abstract
Teachers in secondary education mainly feel responsibility for their own classroom practice, resulting in largely autonomous and isolated work and private learning activities. Most teachers teach separate classes behind closed doors and learn about teaching by teaching, often described as trial and error (Hodkinson and Hodkinson in Stud Continuing Educ 25:3–21, 2003; Int J Train Dev 8: 21–31, 2004). Moreover, teacher professional development has mostly taken place outside school, thus removing teacher learning from the workplace (McMahon in Educational management: redefining theory, policy and practice. Paul Chapman Publishing, London, pp 102–113, 1999). From the perspective of the development of collective capacity of schools, this is not a desirable situation. Teachers need to share their teaching practice and learning experiences in order to stimulate a learning culture in schools. In their work on communities of practice and school teachers’ workplace learning, Hodkinson and Hodkinson (Stud Continuing Educ 25:3–21, 2003; Int J Train Dev 8: 21–31, 2004) conclude that a highly collaborative working culture is accompanied by a learning culture. Teachers learned from one another intuitively, as an ongoing part of their practice. They were happy to move in and out of one another’s lesson, seeing the work that was going on. There are steadily expanding claims that teacher communities contribute to teacher development, the collective capacity of schools and improvements in the practices of teaching and schooling. Teacher community can be understood as a way to bring teachers together to share their knowledge and practices. As such, a community of teachers can be seen to offer an environment for teachers’ learning. However, there seems to be no consensus on the definition and indicators of teacher communities, which are conditional for measuring teacher communities. In this article, we aim at the development of a descriptive model involving a definition, indicators and formation of teacher communities in secondary education in the Netherlands, shared by both practitioners and researchers in the field.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achinstein, B. (2002). Conflict amid community: The micropolitics of teacher collaboration. Teacher College Record, 104, 421–455.
Argyris, C. (1993). On organizational learning. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Bellah, R. N., Madsen, N., Sullivan, W. M., Swidler, A., & Tipton, S. M. (1985). Habits of the heart: Individualism and commitment in American life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Brown, J. S., & Duguid, P. (1991). Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organization Science, 2(1), 40–57.
Burroughs, S. M., & Eby, L. T. (1998). Psychological sense of community at work: A measurement system and explanatory framework. Journal of Community Psychology, 26, 509–532.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Bransford, J. (Eds.). (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Geertz, C. (1973). The interpretation of cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Grossman, P., Wineburg, S., & Woolworth, S. (2001). Toward a theory of teacher community. Teacher College Record, 103, 942–1012.
Hodkinson, P., & Hodkinson, H. (2003). Individuals, communities of practice and the policy context: School teachers’ learning in their workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 25, 3–21.
Hodkinson, H., & Hodkinson, P. (2004). Rethinking the concept of communities of practice in relation to school teachers’ workplace learning. International Journal of Training and Development, 8, 21–31.
Imants, J., Sleegers, P., & Witziers, B. (2001). The tension between sub-structures in secondary schools and educational reform. School Leadership & Management, 21, 289–308.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (2002). Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. In R. Harrison, F. Reeve, A. Hanson, & J. Clarke (Eds.), Supporting life long learning: Perspectives on learning (Vol. 1, pp. 111–126). London: Routledge Falmer.
Linestone, H. A., & Turoff, M. (Eds.). (1975). The Delphi method: Techniques and applications. Cambridge, MA: Addisson-Wesley.
Little, J. W. (2002). Locating learning in teachers’ communities of practice: Opening up problems of analysis in records of everyday work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 917–946.
Little, J. W. (2003). Inside teacher community: Representations of classroom practice. Teachers College Record, 105, 913–945.
Marble, S. (1997). Narrative visions of schooling. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13, 55–64.
McMahon, A. (1999). Promoting continuing professional development for teachers: An achievable target for school leaders? In T. Busch, L. Bell, R. Bolam, R. Glatter, & P. Ribbins (Eds.), Educational management: Redefining theory, policy and practice (pp. 102–113). London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
McMillan, D. W. (1996). Sense of community. Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 315–325.
McMillan, D. W., & Chavis, D. M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology, 14, 6–23.
Piazza, P., McNeill, K. L., & Hittinger, J. (2009, April). Developing a voluntary teacher community: The role of professional development, collaborative learning and conflict. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
Roth, G., & Kleiner, A. (1999). Car launch: The human side of managing change. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sarason, S. B. (1974). The psychological sense of community: Prospects for a community psychology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Scribner, J. P., Sawyer, R. K., Watson, S. T., & Myers, V. L. (2007). Teacher teams and distributed leadership: A study of group discourse and collaboration. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43, 67–100.
Seashore Louis, K., Marks, H., & Kruse, S. (1996). Teachers’ professional community in restructuring schools. American Educational Research Journal, 33, 757–798.
Shulman, L. S., & Shulman, J. H. (2004). How and what teachers learn: A shifting perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36, 257–271.
Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 221–258.
Van Dyne, L., Graham, J. W., & Buckley, M. R. (1994). Organizational citizenship behavior: Construct redefinition, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 37, 765–802.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice. Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: University Press.
Wenger, E., McDermott, R., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Westheimer, J. (1999). Communities and consequences: An inquiry into ideology and practice in teachers’ professional work. Educational Administration Quarterly, 35, 71–105.
Witziers, B., Sleegers, P., & Imants, J. (1999). Departments as teams: Functioning, variations and alternatives. School Leadership & Management, 19, 293–304.
Wood, D. (2007). Teachers’ learning communities: Catalyst for change or a new infrastructure for the status quo? Teacher College Record, 109, 699–739.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the participants of our study for their valuable contribution. This research was funded by the Dutch Programme Council for Education Research of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research under project number 411-05-354.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Admiraal, W., Lockhorst, D. & van der Pol, J. An expert study of a descriptive model of teacher communities. Learning Environ Res 15, 345–361 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9117-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9117-3