Understanding Schools as Organizations: Implications for Realizing Professional Learning Communities

Abstract

As a school-improvement strategy rooted in the accountability ovement, professional learning community (PLC) is a popular idea that has captured the attention of educators. As a topic of conversation, rallying cry for reform and focus of research, it is currently au courant. Evidence of this can be seen in the professional and academic literatures that surround this subject and the healthy commercial industry that has materialized to facilitate the “authentic” realization of PLCs in schools and districts (DuFour & Eaker, 1998; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006; Stoll & Seashore-Louis, 2007).