How to foster collaborative learning in communities of teachers and student teachers: Introduction to a special issue

Abstract

Teachers in secondary education mainly feel responsibility for their own classroom practice, resulting in largely autonomous and isolated work and private learning activities. Most teachers teach separate classes behind closed doors and learn about teaching by teaching, which often is described as trial and error (Hodkinson and Hodkinson 2003, 2004). Moreover, teacher professional development mostly takes place outside school, thus removing teacher learning from the workplace (McMahon 1999). Recent educational literature focuses on teachers as professionals working in a particular school culture, being affected and motivated by the way in which they develop and maintain relationships and mutual interests with colleagues. There is particular attention for the way in which teachers can work and learn in what are called teacher communities (Grossman et al. 2001; Hammerness et al. 2005; Little 2002, 2003; Westheimer 1999). Along with situated learning theories such as those described by Lave and Wenger (1991), many scholars have come to emphasise learning as a dynamic and social participation process (see, for a review, Roth and Lee 2006). Various related terms have been used to indicate the way in which people work and learn in communities, such as communities of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991), learning communities (Brown et al. 1989) and knowledge building communities (Scardamalia and Bereiter 1994). The widespread interest in professional communities indexes a view of learning and knowledge as being integral in social practice (whether captured in collaborative activities, working artefacts, routines, stories or language). This image of learning is increasingly adopted by social scientists (Sfard 1998). Both the organisational and educational fields have started to look for ways to organise or facilitate professional communities as a way to stimulate and facilitate learning (Hildreth and Kimble 2004). In their conceptual framework of how teachers learn, Shulman and Shulman (2004) recognise the importance of communities and work context. In their model of teacher learning, Shulman and Shulman distinguish three interrelated levels of analysis: the individual, communal and policy. At the communal