Developing a professional learning community : a first step

ix, 69 leaves ; 29 cm. --The purpose of this project was to capture a holistic picture of how one rural school community in Southern Alberta, over the course of one year, explored and experienced the journey toward becoming a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Specifically, it inquired into the critical enabling steps a professional teaching staff engaged in to support the development of a PLC. The primary focus was on school mission, vision, values, goals, level of collaboration, and orientation towards results. Data was collected through journal writing, interview, artifacts, and survey. Two factors contributed significantly to the school's development in becoming a professional learning community: first, teachers having the opportunity for regular, during-the-school-day time to meet with each other and, secondly, their use of time to focus collectively on teaching and learning in a way that develops trust but also requires accountability (goals with commitments and timelines). Other study findings indicate that establishing a PLC begins by collectively establishing a school vision, mission, and goals, followed with deliberate steps for implementation. This process also requires at least one school administrator who can facilitate and support the process by having clear vision of what it means to become a PLC

Understanding the context of multifaceted collaborations for social-ecological sustainability: a methodology for cross-case analysis

There are limited approaches available that enable researchers and practitioners to conduct multiple case study comparisons of complex cases of collaboration in natural resource management and conservation. The absence of such tools is felt despite the fact that over the past several years a great deal of literature has reviewed the state of the science regarding collaboration. Much of this work is based on case studies of collaboration and highlights the importance of contextual variables, further complicating efforts to compare outcomes across case-study areas and the likely failure of approaches based on one size fits all generalizations. We expand on the standard overview of the field by identifying some of the challenges associated with managing complex systems with multiple resources, multiple stakeholder groups with diverse knowledges/understandings, and multiple objectives across multiple scales, i.e., multifaceted collaborative initiatives. We then elucidate how a realist methodology, within a critical realist framing, can support efforts to compare multiple case studies of such multifaceted initiatives. The methodology we propose considers the importance and impact of context for the origins, purpose, and success of multifaceted collaborative natural resource management and conservation initiatives in social-ecological systems