Being Connected: How a Relational Network of Educators Promotes Productive Communities of Practice

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Capacity and Collaboration in Times of Reform: New Ideas About Educational Change and School Development

Abstract

This study emerges from the premise that the growing “culturally and linguistically diverse” (CLD) student population in the U.S. is being underserved by the traditional school system. Teachers are often isolated in their practice with much of a private practice culture prevailing in classrooms. This exploratory case study represents an effort to support school reform by examining a relational network of Catholic school educators engaging in communities of practice (CoP). Since individual members learn in CoP, then studying CoP in a network of TWI schools offers an interesting proposition. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which a relational network of educators promotes productive CoP engaged in serving the educational needs of CLD students.

Author

• Minsong Kim, Boston College