This study is a survey and interpretation of professional development literature related to professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools. Current K 12 trade publications focusing on PLCs were analyzed against four different theoretical models of professionalism. Each model encourages and legitimates a different understanding of the knowledge content and practices that make teachers and their schools "professional." The article concludes that PLC learning presently embraces the technical and managerial dimensions of teachers' work at the expense of craft knowledge and critical perspectives, resulting in narrow and impoverished understandings of teacher professionalism, and limiting potential contributions of PLCs to teachers' professional growth and learning.