This article explores how participation in a community of practice course aided negotiation between performer-educator identities among graduate students professionally active as studio teachers. Studio teachers may face isolation due to limited opportunities for professional development and the secluded nature of one-on-one instruction, and…

An arts curriculum director of an urban, Pre-K-12 school district north of Boston, Massachusetts researched literature about feelings of connectedness and professional learning among itinerant, art teachers. The study employed a framework of communities of practice for itinerant art teachers. The strands found across the literature were the state…

This paper reports on a study of Teacher Support Teams (TSTs) established to generate peer support and collaboration among teacher and nurse educators at a Norwegian university. In TST groups, educators share experiences from their own teaching practices and support one another in solving work-related problems. By the use of interaction analysis,…

Through a single-case study design, the research study described in this article examined one rural Canadian school division's use of teacher-directed collaborative action research as a mediating tool for teacher learning within a professional development (PD) initiative known as the Numeracy Cohort. The PD initiative brought together a dozen K-12…

During 2017-2018, CEELO conducted a professional learning community (PLC) to support leadership development among newly appointed, high-level leaders of early education in state education agencies. The goal of the PLC was for participants to increase awareness, gain critical knowledge and develop leadership skills needed to guide highly effective…

This study aims at: (1) reviewing the underlying causes of teacher isolation; (2) unrevealing the negative effects of isolation on teachers' professional and personal life; (2) illustrating different modes of voluntary collaboration among teachers; (4) presenting substantive evidence is support of collaboration as an efficient mode of professional…

Entry into the Fellowship of Staff and Educational Development Association is through the production of a professional portfolio which evidences the applicant's achievement of the Fellowship requirements. Supporting and Leading Educational Change takes participants through the Fellowship process. The 12-week online course combines theory of…

The professional learning community (PLC) is a powerful tool in education, one that is intended to reform failing schools and improve student achievement. This research gathered data to determine teacher perceptions about challenges of teacher collaboration within a PLC school. The key conceptual framework for this case study originated from work…

In recent years, enrollment and overall student performance in rural schools have declined. Research shows that principals are critical to the success of a school system and that implementing a virtual community of practice (CoP) at the principal level has solved some of the issues associated with rurality in some organizations. Such…

School administrators rarely have the opportunity to confer and share their challenges with colleagues. To address this problem in 2005 the Educational Administration Department (EAD) at Central University (a Midwestern PhD granting institution located in a thriving city of about 100,00 people) created a virtual/local doctoral cohort for 14 school…

The concept of "professional learning community" (PLC) has been suggested as a tool to improve teachers' professional competency and students' learning outcomes since the mid-1990s. In such a community, teachers can share their individual practices with the aim of searching for "good practice" based on the outcome of collective…

Connecting with other education professionals is important in supporting teacher learning. Teachers in remote locations in Australia experience a professional isolation due to geographic isolation that makes it difficult to engage in sustained collaborations with other teachers. In a national project ICT was used to assist these teachers by…

The purpose of this study was to examine reasons for teacher participation in online communities of K-12 teachers. The authors interviewed 23 teachers from three self-generated online communities and analyzed more than 2,000 postings in those communities. The findings indicated five reasons for participation: (a) sharing emotions, (b) utilizing…