"The Road Less Traveled" : professional communities in secondary schools

Abstract

During the last 4 decades, numerous reform efforts have been proposed to improve schools. Two reforms, decentralization and teacher collaboration, seemed to coalesce by the 1990s to pave the way toward a new understanding of leading and learning in schools. In retrospect, the decentralization movement and the literature on teacher collaboration appear to have been significant precursors to an emerging concept called professional community. This article explores key aspects of professional community, discusses potential benefits, and examines difficulties that principals and teachers may face as they try to shift from familiar norms and relationships to the establishment of professional communities in schools. The shift may require principals and teachers to confront longstanding traditions and may involve profound changes in attitudes and practices. The article draws on the literature, as well as illustrations from an empirical study in Maltese secondary schools, to suggest several ways in which the principal and other school members might facilitate the establishment of professional learning communities.