Enabling School Structures, Trust, and Collective Efficacy: Predictors of Professional Learning Community

• In Event: Understanding the Interaction Between School Culture, Leadership, and Trust

Abstract

Over the last two decades many school districts have developed professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means of unifying teachers within school organizations toward common goals and collaborative efforts. Enabling school structures, trust, and collective efficacy explain the development of professional learning communities. The formal aspects of the school, the factors that enable school structures, and the informal aspects of the organization, collegial trust, trust in principal, and collective efficacy, each contribute in a unique way. Although the theory is persuasive, this paper lends empirical data to support the explanatory framework. This study analyzed the roles of enabling school structures, collegial trust, trust in principal and collective efficacy in context to PLCs.

Authors

• Julie A. Gray, Texas A&M University - San Antonio

• Roxanne M. Mitchell, The University of Alabama

• C. John Tarter, The University of Alabama