TY - JOUR
T1 - Collaborativeness as the core of professional learning communities beyond culture and context
T2 - evidence from Canada, Finland, and Israel
AU - Jäppinen, Aini Kristiina
AU - Leclerc, Martine
AU - Tubin, Dorit
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2016/7/2
Y1 - 2016/7/2
N2 - Professional learning communities (PLC) have been widely accepted as effective with respect to good atmosphere, adequate leadership practices, and functional working practices. However, the outcomes for school improvement depend on case-specific issues. To identify less culturally and contextually bound issues in 3 PLC settings in Canada, Finland, and Israel, we examined our cases through the notion of “collaborativeness”. It refers to a systematic and shared process consisting of efforts, ideas, and activities that aim at achieving synergy. By combining the 3 data sets and applying a special model, we were able to distinguish, through qualitative content analysis, ingredients of collaborativeness beyond culture and context that we consider particularly essential. The crucial factor proved to be a dynamic relationship between mutual and deep learning, realized through 5 different ways. We further believe that our results could serve other organizations striving for school improvement in other kinds of cultural and contextual settings.
AB - Professional learning communities (PLC) have been widely accepted as effective with respect to good atmosphere, adequate leadership practices, and functional working practices. However, the outcomes for school improvement depend on case-specific issues. To identify less culturally and contextually bound issues in 3 PLC settings in Canada, Finland, and Israel, we examined our cases through the notion of “collaborativeness”. It refers to a systematic and shared process consisting of efforts, ideas, and activities that aim at achieving synergy. By combining the 3 data sets and applying a special model, we were able to distinguish, through qualitative content analysis, ingredients of collaborativeness beyond culture and context that we consider particularly essential. The crucial factor proved to be a dynamic relationship between mutual and deep learning, realized through 5 different ways. We further believe that our results could serve other organizations striving for school improvement in other kinds of cultural and contextual settings.
KW - collaboration
KW - dynamics
KW - leadership
KW - professional learning community
KW - school improvement
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84983048028&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09243453.2015.1067235
DO - 10.1080/09243453.2015.1067235
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84983048028
SN - 0924-3453
VL - 27
SP - 315
EP - 332
JO - School Effectiveness and School Improvement
JF - School Effectiveness and School Improvement
IS - 3
ER -