Research-Practice Partnerships With University-Partnered Community Schools as Contexts for Doctoral Student Training

2021 ◽  
pp. 104-129
Author(s):  
Ung-Sang Lee ◽  
Shanté Stuart McQueen ◽  
Karla Rivera-Torres ◽  
Evelyn Wang ◽  
Lilia Rodriguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Community Schools ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Graduate Student Education ◽  
Student Training ◽  
Project Life

In this chapter, the authors examine the ways in which equity-focused research-practice partnerships (RPPs) in two university-partnership schools served as contexts for their professional learning as educational researchers. They found that our participation in RPPs were characterized by access to a cross-disciplinary learning community, opportunities to collaborate with school stakeholders through research project life cycles, and pathways to become increasingly agentic facilitators of RPPs. Through such processes and structures, they expanded their social justice-oriented researcher positionalities, impacted local educational practices, and communicated their findings to a diverse set of audiences. They discuss the implications of these findings for graduate student education pedagogy, specifically for preparing doctoral students for the emerging professoriate.

Three Innovations: Promises and Perils

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Sam Oh Neill
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
School Board ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Social Emotional Learning ◽  
School Reforms ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Purpose Of Education ◽  
Differentiation Of Instruction

In 2003, I began a longitudinal study into the purpose of education. The process of my investigation included getting involved in new innovations as they were introduced to our school board. As I looked deeper into the purpose of schooling I discovered some startling things about how and why systems of education, through the apparatus of schooling, influence who and what, professionally, people become. I also discovered patterns related to the act of becoming that exist in school reforms. This study analyzes three reforms introduced between 2003 and 2017: Professional Learning Community, Differentiation of Instruction, and Social-Emotional Learning. 

scholarly journals Socio-Cultural Development Approach to Investigate Teacher Learning across Two Contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Hee-Jeong Kim
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Development Approach

Teacher professional learning occurs across various contexts. Previous studies on teacher learning and changes in practice have focused on either classroom contexts or learning communities outside of school, but have rarely investigated teacher learning across multiple contexts. Investigating teacher learning across the double contexts of classroom and learning community has presented methodological challenges. In response, this paper proposes the suitability of adopting a socio-cultural development framework to further the analytical approach to such challenges. Using the framework, this paper considers the case study of a middle school mathematics teacher who resolved a problem of teaching practice through interacting with other members of the community of practice where they build shared goals and knowledge. This paper contributes to the field by expanding the scope of research on teacher learning across these two contexts, in which problem of practice becomes conceptual resources that the teacher uses in her teaching practice.

scholarly journals The development of professional learning community in primary schools

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 2789-2796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sompong Samoot ◽  
Erawan Prawit ◽  
Dharm tad sa na non Sudharm
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Primary Schools

scholarly journals Newly qualified teachers’ professional learning through practitioner enquiry

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 242-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dean Robson ◽  
Peter Mtika
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Initial Teacher Education ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Qualified Teachers ◽  
Teacher Education Institution ◽  
Pupil Learning ◽  
Newly Qualified Teachers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on a partnership-based mentoring model and the learning experiences of participant mentees and mentors. As part of the project, newly qualified teachers (NQTs) were supported to develop and implement a practitioner enquiry (teacher/action research) in a learning community involving two local authorities and an initial teacher education institution. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative data were collected from five semi-structured focus group interviews with key participant groupings to uncover perceptions and experiences of the partnership and professional learning therein. Analysis using an inductive and iterative approach pinpointed a number of emerging themes used to frame key elements of the findings. Findings Findings suggested that the partnership-based model promoted the professional learning and development of NQTs and their mentors in various ways. The nature and shape of the partnership had an influence on the quality of mentoring and support experienced. The community effectively supported the implementation of meaningful enquiry projects, which had clear connections to the enhancement of professional practice and pupil learning. However, specific tensions and conflicts emerged as hindrances to successful partnership-based mentoring in the specific context. Originality/value New insights into the role of a partnership-based mentoring scheme supporting practitioner enquiry-based learning of NQTs emerged. The local, layered community defining the partnership, and operating within the frame of a national induction scheme, was analysed. Benefits for partners were identified and specific challenges and tensions highlighted, both providing new evidence with potential to impact policy and practice. Policy developments supporting teachers to be mentors and enquiring professionals need to recognise the structural and support tensions that exist in contextual practice.

scholarly journals CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY: INSTITUTIONAL FACTORS

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 493
Author(s):  
Justinas Monkevicius ◽  
Renaldas Čiužas
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Organisational Culture ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Teacher Professional Learning ◽  
Organisational Structure ◽  
Teacher Professional

The article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of institutional factors of creation and development of successful teacher professional learning communities. On the basis of the conducted theoretical analysis, institutional factors were systemised and divided into four groups:factors related to organisational culture, to processes, to organisational structure, and factors related to financial and material resources.The empirical research reveals the relevance of theoretically distinguished factors to the practical processes of creation and development of successful teacher professional learning communities. It also singles out new factors that have not been investigated by other scholars and highlights the encountered barriers.

scholarly journals A case study of two teacher learning communities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Free-Queen Bongiwe Zulu ◽  
Tabitha Grace Mukeredzi
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Learning ◽  
South African ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Basic Education ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Education And Development ◽  
Teacher Learning Communities

In the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development, a South African policy, the Department of Basic Education (DBE) and the Department of Higher Education (DHET) call for the formation of professional learning communities and envisage support for teachers and access to enhanced professional development opportunities at the local level. However, the formation and operation of professional learning communities in a South African context is still unclear. In this article we use the concept of professional learning communities to examine the extent to which 2 teacher learning communities operate as professional learning communities. We used interviews, observations, survey questionnaires and document analysis to generate data. The findings of the study reveal that the 2 teacher learning communities were initiated by the DBE and not by teachers. However, the size of 1 teacher learning community and the nature of its functioning seemed to adhere to the characteristics of a professional learning community while the other did not. The findings indicate that professional learning communities that operate in developing contexts might be functional when all the stakeholders play a meaningful role in supporting professional learning communities.

scholarly journals Blog-based professional development of English teachers in Mumbai: The potential of innovative practice under scrutiny

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atiya Khan
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Teacher Collaboration ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
English Teachers ◽  
Information And Communications Technology ◽  
Learning Networks ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Interactive Workshop

The professional development of teachers in India is still, by and large, based on formal and outdated professional learning traditions, often characterised by crash courses and one-off workshops. In education, blogs have proven to be an effective means of establishing and maintaining collaborative learning networks and helping members reflect on their professional practices. Information and communications technology (ICT) enabled practices of teacher professional development is still in its infancy in India. Moreover, there is limited research in India to secure foundational understanding of how and in what ways teachers of English in India use blogs for their professional development. This study explores the use of teacher reflective practice, teacher networking, and teacher collaboration, beyond formal ICT training, through blog-based professional development of English teachers in the Mumbai region of India. Using data collected from 32 teachers from three private schools in Mumbai, through ICT interactive workshop observations, questionnaires, interviews, and blog comments, this action case study explains whether and why blogging, as a learning community, has the potential to add significant value to existing professional development of English teachers in Mumbai.

scholarly journals Communities of practice and PISA for Schools: Comparative learning or a mode of educational governance?

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
International Student ◽  
Student Assessment ◽  
School Level ◽  
Topological Spaces ◽  
Global Learning ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
International Student Assessment ◽  
New Variant

This paper examines the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) PISA for Schools, a new variant of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that compares school-level performance on reading, math and science with international schooling systems (e.g., Shanghai-China, Finland). Specifically, I focus here on a professional learning community – the Global Learning Network (GLN) – of U.S. schools and districts that have voluntarily participated in PISA for Schools, and how this, arguably, helps to normatively determine ‘what works’ in education. Drawing suggestively across diverse thinking around contemporary modes of governance, and emerging topological spaces and relations associated with globalization, and informed by interviews with 33 policy actors across the PISA for Schools policy cycle, my analyses suggest that GLN allows the OECD to discursively and normatively constrain how ‘world-class’ schools and systems, and their policies and practices, are defined. However, and in light of the productive capacities of power relations, I also argue that GLN provides opportunities for local educators and leaders to undertake meaningful collaboration and sharing, and to find policy spaces outside of those defined by more performative discursive framings of school accountability. To this end, I explore how GLN may help to foster alternative policy spaces from which educators can ‘talk back’ to national and state authorities, and potentially promote more ‘authentic’ understandings of, and possibilities for, schooling accountability.

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