The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe the leadership styles of Catholic school principals in California who lead professional learning communities. It is not known how Catholic elementary school principals describe their leadership styles when leading professional learning communities. The overarching research question…

Prior to this study being conducted, it was not known how teachers describe the PLC collaboration among teachers and school leaders that supports faculty development. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how teachers in Texas describe the PLC collaboration among teachers and school leaders that supports faculty development.…

This article reports a study on members in self-organised Facebook groups for teachers. The aim is to investigate how teachers' needs and actions form their roles in the extended staffroom. 26 teachers from six different Facebook groups within two different school subjects, mathematics and Swedish, are interviewed. The results reveal a trajectory…

This mixed-method study explored academics' beliefs about interdisciplinary research collaboration (IDRC) and their influences on collaborative practices in a Chinese research university. Exploratory interviews with nine academics were first conducted to examine their beliefs about IDRC. The findings revealed that the academics' beliefs about IDRC…

Various pedagogical tools have been used by educators as they seek to build classroom communities that support learning. This mixed-methods case study examined the experiences of students who utilized a class Facebook group as a pedagogical tool in a face-to-face university undergraduate course. Students' perceptions were gathered via an online…

Introduction: Supportive principals are essential to the successful development of professional learning communities in schools, and student achievement is also significantly impacted by school leadership. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine principals' actions, beliefs, and perspectives related to the development of…

Previous scholarship finds that effective Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have increased student achievement and advanced teacher pedagogy. As a result, PLCs have become increasingly prevalent in school reform efforts to remediate professional development. Dialogue is considered an essential component of effective PLC practice needed to…

This paper explores, from a practical perspective, the role, and potential outcomes of the "We Hear, We Speak" (WHWS) learning community in supporting international women faculty and promoting their personal and professional growth. Grounded in the principles of relational cultural theory (RCT), the WHWS community embodies the core…

Online learning communities are becoming increasingly popular as they are known to support collaborative dialogue and knowledge building. Previous studies have typically focused on small, closed learning communities from an individual, static, and aggregated perspective. This research aims to advance our understanding of open and large online…

As distinct communities of practice (COP), science education research (SER) and environmental education research (EER) have both matured a great deal in recent decades, coming to include a greater diversity of theoretical perspectives, worldviews, and researcher and participant voices. In this paper, we present a view of theoretical inclusivity…

Purpose: Despite the continuous growth of empirical studies exploring professional learning communities (PLCs) across different education systems, little is known about PLC instruments developed and used in existing research. This article aims to capture a full picture of existing PLC instruments developed since 1990. In so doing, the authors also…

One way that university mathematics departments across the United States are making efforts to improve their introductory mathematics courses is by implementing or increasing the level of course coordination. This can entail creating uniform course elements for multi-section courses and efforts to build a community of practice among the…

The substantive and the political are part of most educational endeavors. Researchers tend to be cast as more powerful in interactions between research and practice. This structural historical hierarchy is at the backdrop of research-practice partnerships (RPP) and threatens to marginalize practitioners' perspectives. Drawing on Bakhtin and…

This article reviews studies that have addressed academic developers' professional identity, focusing on the period 1996-2020. Our intention was to evaluate and synthesise the claims made in this body of research in order to inform theory as well as the work in which developers are currently engaged. Thirty-four peer-reviewed papers were included…

We describe a longitudinal (5-year) researcher-supported initiative designed to strengthen the research-practice link (RPL) and serve as an effective form of situated professional learning and development (PLD) in adult second language programs. We facilitated the formation of and supported 9 professional reading groups of 6-12 instructors (N =…