2012 UCEA Convention

Examining Latent Mean Differences in Instructional Leadership & Professional Community for Former & Current Teachers. Rebecca Wolf, University of Maryland
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship of professional community, instructional leadership, and teacher turnover by examining the latent mean differences in the constructs of a sense of professional community and instructional leadership for current teachers and for teachers who have since left the profession. Data come from the 2000-2001 publicly available Teacher Follow-Up Survey conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Multiple Stakeholder Decison Making In Professional Learning Communities. S. David Brazer, George Mason University; Robert G. Smith, George Mason University
This paper examines the decision making that occurs in professional learning communities (PLCs). Important influences on decision making include individual objectives hierarchies of members and organizational influences such as bounded rationality, logic of appropriateness, and institutional isomorphism. A qualitative research design was employed, achieving triangulation through interviews, observations, and document analysis. Preliminary findings suggest that PLCs operate in a narrow locus of decision making and are somewhat influenced by isomorphic pressures.

Professional Learning Communities using Evidence: Examining Teacher Learning and Organizational Learning. Michelle Van Lare, George Mason University; S. David Brazer, George Mason University There are two main purposes of this paper: a) to demonstrate what has been learned through field-based research regarding teachers’ use of evidence in professional learning communities (PLCs); and b) to explain processes within PLCs as evidence for organizational learning along two different dimensions. Collectively, these two purposes help to unpack the nature of learning within PLCs and discern whether or not what has been learned has organizational ramifications.