Facilitating the Development of a Community of Learners

While the literature in professional development (PD) for teachers makes clear that community is as an essential feature of environments that support teacher learning, little is known about how to create and sustain community from a facilitation perspective. In order to paint a portrait of high quality PD facilitation that supports the development of a learning community, I represented and decomposed the PD facilitation practices of an accomplished leader of mathematics teachers. To do so, I analyzed video data collected in a longitudinal study to investigate the nature of high quality facilitation. This qualitative analysis reveals that effective facilitation of PD for teachers that supports the development of community entails cultivating trust by helping participants get to know each other, sharing vulnerability, and positioning teachers competently. Findings inform teacher professional development, teacher education, and educational leadership theory and practice