Building Learning Communities in Schools: The Next Generation or the Impossible Dream?

Abstract

Although educational change continues to be a topic of considerable interest in research, scholarship, policy, and practice, it remains a problematic issue. Many metaphors for generating sustainable change have been advocated from time to time. One such metaphor currently enjoying some popularity is that of a learning organization or a learning community. This paper describes the influences that emerged in one attempt to build a learning community in an elementary school. Influences clustered into four constellations of issues: individual, group, organizational, and contextual. While many of the influences supported the teachers' attempts to generate effective organizational learning, others interfered with the process. At the end of the study, the staff believed that they had created an authentic learning community on staff, but over time the processes diminished and eventually, as more of the original participants left the school, disappeared. The cultural and political realities of life in schools suggest that the development of a learning community among teachers is decidedly difficult. Although the metaphor holds promise for generating sustainable improvement and renewal in teaching and learning, its ultimate success is questionable.