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One approach to professional development that is gaining prominence among practitioners and researchers is called a Community of Practice. Research has supported the notion that learning through collaboration (i.e., professional learning communities, collaborative cultures) is an effective approach to teacher learning (Hord, 1997, DuFour & Eaker, 1998) and is critical to school reform and instructional improvements (Fullan, 2001). Lave and Wenger conceived of Community of Practice (CoP) as “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002, p. 7). In their view, called a situated view of knowledge, learning occurs in practice, through social exchanges and memberships that form the community where the work occurs. Participating in a CoP is a way of learning.

As organizations like EDC use CoPs as a strategy to help school districts implement reform, it is important that we take stock of our own practices. The degree and scale to which we impact K-12 systems, is dependent in part on how effectively we deepen our own knowledge and expertise. How can we be sure that evidence-based knowledge and innovation from our work and from others in the field, is generated, shared, and disseminated in a continuous cycle among ourselves within EDC and the very “communities” for whom we hope to affect: teachers, administrators, and students?

The purpose of my action research project is to build a constituency that implements, takes stock of, and adjusts measures to foster organizational learning activities that are reflective of the CoP approach to professional development. My work n the participatory action research process will be guided by the following research question. What are the processes and interactions that support teacher learning in communities of practice, and how can we integrate them into our own professional development activities and those we develop for teachers?