抄録
This paper aims to understand and evaluate the structure of teachers’ learning in the
community, as discussed by Shulman. The first section examines why Shulman focused on the
community. It clarifies that he drew from Vygotsky’s concept, the “zone of proximal development,”
and considered Schwab’s community theory of teacher development. The second section examines
how Shulman regarded community as based on schools, while creating his “Fostering a
Community of Teachers as Learners” project. In this project, he used four elements from the
learning principles: activity or agency, reflection or metacognition, collaboration, and formation
of a supportive community or a sustaining culture, thus creating a foundational principle for
the development of the well-known teachers’ learning community framework. In the third
section, Shulman’s case method is analyzed, focusing on creating a community of teachers.
Cases enable teachers to communicate with their colleagues in an “invisible college.” Therefore,
it becomes evident that the case is a tool creating a community beyond time and space.
When both school-based and case-based communities work well, the learning process for
teachers in that community can successfully adapt to the existing teacher culture. This has the
following implications for theory and practice in Japan: first, the concept of community is
extended through distinction between the substantive community, such as a school, and the
functional community that emerges through ongoing communication. Second, the Japanese
culture of “teacher narrative description” can be reevaluated as a discussion of teacher learning
in the community. Third, reading and writing teacher narrative descriptions can create a
functional professional community, which would contribute to establishing professionalism as
well as standards of professionalism.
https://ror.org/02kpeqv85 
