The Paradox of Professional Community: Tales From Two High Schools

Fostering sustained teacher learning: co-creating purposeful and empowering workplaces

“…This may be the most surprising finding of this study, as we expected that teachers' perceptions of task interdependence would have increased after the implementation of multidisciplinary teams in VET colleges. However, the finding that initial levels of task interdependence were already very high might indicate that teachers had welcomed an infrastructure that facilitated more contact with colleagues (e.g., Scribner et al, 2002;Stoll et al, 2009). Although consideration and stimulation increased over time, we did not find a systematic constant change factor.…”

“…This suggest that when teachers feel more supported by their leader, they also feel more empowered to interact with their team members to complete tasks (e.g., Jung & Sosik, 2002;Maynard et al, 2013;Scribner et al, 2002), validating the impact of leadership practices on collaboration, and more generally, working conditions in schools as found in previous studies (Dionne et al, 2007;Nir & Kranot, 2006). Given the effects of task interdependence on self-reflection as found in this study, this finding substantiates claims of the indirect effect of leadership on teacher learning as mediated by teacher collaboration (Geijsel et al, 2009;Thoonen et al, 2011).…”

“…A transformational leader contributes to this process by initiating and articulating a vision, inspiring teachers to formulate shared goals, connect to these, commit to them, and participate in interaction and coordination with team members in order to attain their goals. Reciprocally, when teachers take the responsibility to continue pursuing attainment of common goals, they support their leader to remain inspirational (e.g., Mulford, 2010;Scribner, Hager, & Warne, 2002). The collaboration between transformational leaders and teachers thereby co-creates a purposeful learning environment for sustained exchange of knowledge.…”

“…To this it adds that vision building practices are not one-way influences. When teachers take the responsibility to strive to attain common goals, they support their leader to remain inspirational (e.g., Mulford, 2010;Scribner, Hager, & Warne, 2002). Vision and goal interdependence therefore provide and (self-)generate direction so that teachers can sustain social learning and fruitfully adapt to the changes that face them (Giles & Hargreaves, 2006;Stoll et al, 2006).…”

“…As teachers need time to come to understand how to interact with colleagues to complete tasks, generating knowledge to adapt to changing circumstances might help (Mulford, 2010;Scribner, Hager, & Warne, 2002). When teachers find adequate ways to interact with each other, obtained knowledge from colleagues can be beneficial to further promote their own learning (Desimone, 2009;Horn & Little, 2010;Nonaka, 1994;Spillane et al, 2002).…”