“I’m a Team Player”: The Complicated Promise of Communities of Practice for School Change

• In Event: Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Encouraging Teacher Development Through Communities of Practice

Abstract

This case study focuses on a high school English department community of practice as they work to redesign established English coursework into problem-based learning (PBL) coursework. Leveraging increased collaboration through communities of practice, the school hopes that in the process of school improvement, teacher’s beliefs and values regarding teaching and learning will also shift. Using Wenger’s communities of practice framework (1998), I examine the role and impact of teacher buy-in to the pedagogy (PBL) and the task (course redesign) on the team’s collaborative practice throughout the year. Findings suggest that varied levels of teacher buy-in to both the pedagogy and task created tension within the group that revealed fundamental differences of opinion about teaching learning that were never resolved.

Author

• Paul Sutton, University of Washington