Abstract
Professional Leaning Communities (PLCs) are considered a powerful model for staff development and school reform in the United States. Richard DuFour is a particularly famous advocate, and many schools have adopted his model. To clarify the actual status of PLCs, this paper examines the case of Leland Middle School, a developer of DuFour's model. DuFour defines PLCs as ongoing processes in which educators work collaboratively in recurring cycles of collective inquiry and action research to achieve improved results for students. He presents three substantial ideas and four simple questions, a characteristic that has helped his model gain popularity. However, problems surrounding collaboration should be considered, and collaboration designed to focus on the results could narrow professionalism in the context of high-stakes testing. This research was designed to clarify the difficulties of collaboration and to define professionalism through fieldwork and interviews at Leland Middle School. Leland has worked collaboratively with DuFour's model and developed its own model to correspond with Common Core State Standards. Collaborative planning is highly valuable to the school, and they have developed their own format for implementing it. This case makes three suggestions. First, the patterns of discussing and creating artifacts collaboratively, such as with DuFour's four questions and lesson plans, helps to promote collaboration and reflection while communicating in a common language. Second, compulsory patterns of practice may discourage teachers, while a principal's supportive leadership can foster feelings of ownership. Third, collaboration often creates conflicts between teachers' own practices, although a shared purpose and open-mindedness help to overcome this issue. Concerning their definition of a professional, a middle leader and new teacher share the same basic values or cares that the principal believes are important for students experiencing difficulties. Finally, determining their value by focusing on students and defining professionalism is needed to sustain PLCs.
