Developing a learning community : teachers' perspective

النوع : Mémoire

The idea that schools functioning as learning communities (LC) foster high student achievement and promote teacher learning and collaboration is well documented in educational literature. Little research, however, has been done to investigate the actual development of a LC in terms of how it is perceived and put into practice by teachers. In addition, no research has been found that examined teachers' perspectives early in the process of establishing a LC. The current case study aims at investigating the elements that make a new school, "Morning Sunshine Learning Community" (MSLC), an emergent learning community and more specifically how teachers perceive it in that regard. The case study focuses on teachers' perceptions of a) the characteristics of learning community that MSLC has, b) the conditions or situations that are impacting their learning within this learning community, c) how their interactions with all the members in the learning community are contributing to their personal and/or professional growth, and d) their perceived challenges to the establishment of a learning community. The study concludes with recommendations to improve the ongoing process of building the learning community according to the findings grounded in teachers' experiences and practices taking into account the researcher's viewpoint as a participant observer.Data were collected from the analysis of school documents and media found on the school website, the researcher's personal journal as the professional development liaison, teachers' questionnaires on their professional development background, individual semi-structured interviews with teachers, and the reviews of teachers' professional development files. A constant comparative, interpretational and reflective approach to data analysis was used whereby constructs, themes, and patterns relating to the beliefs, attitudes, and conditions that promote learning communities were identified.Results show that teachers mainly focused on two of the four elements of LC: collaboration and continuous professional development. They did not seem to be explicitly aware of the importance of focusing on high student achievement and how leadership affects the school dynamics. However, it is important to say that collaboration and professional development are in fact at the core of the learning community concept and were well understood and internalized by teachers.