Reconstructing teacher professional learning within a school-university partnership through communities of practice : a phenomenological case study.

Professional Development Schools (PDS) and other school-university partnerships strive for reciprocal learning among spaces, people, and practices. Yet, this mission is often unactualized. The lack of reciprocal learning limits all educators' learning opportunities and widens the chasm between educators in both spaces. This study reflects the National Association for School-University Partnerships' (NASUP, formerly National Association for Professional Development Schools or NAPDS) ethos for reciprocity between school and university partnerships. It explores a collective approach to teacher professional learning within a PDS setting. This reciprocal collective community spans the traditional boundaries of school and university, honors teacher-practitioner knowledge, and emphasizes the shared, generative knowledge between the two converging spaces. Through qualitative case study methods, this study illustrates that reciprocal learning between school-university partnerships has the potential to re-professionalize teachers. Teacher focus groups, classroom observations, and teacher-generated artifacts indicated that teachers felt supported by a like-minded group of educators, appreciated how this approach honored their expertise and valued learning through a community that emphasized practice. Additionally, teachers demonstrated an expanding culture of inquiry and a desire to share their professional knowledge and grow their community. This teacher professional learning also fostered curricular and pedagogical growth among the teachers. Teachers often had to throw off previous constraints and notions to move towards becoming the teachers they desired to become. This study also includes a discussion of these themes, implications, and recommendations to continue reciprocal and collective teacher professional learning, ways to expand this community, and areas for future investigation. The study also contributes a conceptual framework to enhance scholarship around teacher professional learning that is situated within school-university partnerships.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Grantor

Baylor University.

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Talbert, Camille Schulze, 1989-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Johnston, Kelly C.

• School-university partnership.
• Communities of practice.
• Professional learning.
• Teacher education.
• Inquiry-based learning.

Statement dc:rights

• Baylor University works are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. Contact libraryquestions@baylor.edu for inquiries about permission.

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/2104/13126

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:baylor-ir.tdl.org:2104/13126