Constructing Practice Through Conversations in Professional Learning Groups: Variations on a Theme in the Israeli Context

• In Event: Sharing Knowledge in Local Settings: International Perspectives on Teacher Learning Communities

Abstract

In response to global educational reforms favoring privatization, high stakes accountability of processes, outcomes and standardization, professional conversation frameworks for teacher learning in Israel are gradually gaining currency as a particularly valuable means for enhancing and sustaining a motivated professional community (i.e., Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2004; DuFour, 2004; Fullan, 1994) that can withstand pressures and challenges associated with performativity. Three contrastive cases emerged from the field work, which are summarized below:

CASE STRUCTURE PROCESS OUTCOMES
(1) Talking “close”

Formal certificate of qualification to the general master’s degree program Case-based pedagogy course; selected articles; practices discussed in small group settings Conversations involving connections between theoretical ideas and local practices, connections between the literature and experiences in practice Predetermined by course syllabi and made public through publication in a professional journal
(2)Talking “open”

Ministry of Education professional development in-service program
Starting point arose from participants’ expressed need to meet regularly in the company of the project leader/academic researcher/group facilitator Topic of each session left open to encourage mentors to freely voice dilemmas and stories from the field, and to collaboratively reflect on their roles as mentors/teachers Participants expressed sense of professional development. Awareness of dualities and accountabilities in the passage from teacher to mentor
(3)Talking “open-close”

Accreditation of mentors with a formal certificate by the Ministry of Education Two-year course designed around a conversation component interspersed with guest lecturers During presentations, participants are encouraged to discuss their professional histories. Written professional histories submitted at conclusion of course.
Format of stories is left open and unstructured

Products of the case study research method, the three cases ranging from closed to more open frameworks of professional conversations demonstrate that, despite differences in structure, process, and outcomes, practices of professional conversation in Israel involve “variations of a theme.” Grounded in social learning theory, these variations are illustrative of a feminist approach to communities of practice (i.e., Wenger, 1998) because professional conversation emerges as relational, respectful of diversity, and political. Such conversations arose as a response to “contrived collegiality” (Hargreaves & Dawe, 1990) or what Grimmett and Grehan (1992) have described as an “organizationally induced type of collegiality.” Where teacher education is concerned, this research implies a need for safe professional spaces for dialogue (i.e., _______, 2005), collaboration, documentation of experiences, and for managing conflicts of accountability arising from the chasm between policy makers’ intentions and the character of professional practice enacted in local settings in Israel. This work suggests that pedagogical practices within educational systems of accountability and standardization can benefit from contrived collegiality frameworks that paradoxically advance feminist narratives of practice and provide a window into how global educational reforms play out in relational, political, and contextually and culturally diverse local milieus.

Author

• Lily Orland-Barak, University of Haifa