Schools as Learning Communities
Issues... about Change, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1994)
Introduction
Learning community has become a popularly used term in educational literature, particularly with regard to school reform. The idea of a learning community is an adaptation of the concept of learning organizations, described by Senge (1990). Learning organizations are comprised of people who see themselves as connected to each other and the world, where creative thinking is nurtured, and ". . . where people are continually learning how to learn together" (Senge, 1990, p.3). Sergiovanni (1992) observed that "the idea of a school as a learning community suggests a kind of connectedness among members that resembles what is found in a family, a neighborhood, or some other closely knit group, where bonds tend to be familial or even sacred" (p. 47). A related concept, a "school-based professional community," was characterized by Kruse and Louis (1993) as one where teachers engage in reflective dialogue, where there is de-privatization of practice, collective focus on student learning, collaboration, and shared norms and values.
In an extensive review of the school reform literature focusing on school context, Boyd(1992a) identified indicators that facilitate change. Seventeen of these indicators (Boyd, 1992b) describe a school as a learning community, whose culture reduces isolation, increases staff capacity, provides a caring, productive environment, and promotes increased quality (Boyd & Hord, 1994). A learning community is a place where critical inquiry is practiced by collegial partners who share a common vision and engage in shared decision-making. This continuous critical inquiry provides a basis for seamless school improvement.
Leadership, however, is essential for the creation of a learning community, whose culture is shaped by an accumulation of hundreds of leaders' actions - no single one seen as critical. In combination, however, they profoundly affect a school's context for change and improvement (Peterson, 1988). Beckhard and Pritchard (1992) cite this leadership and note that "a learning mode only occurs when an organization's top leaders understand the process, see learning as something to be valued, and are prepared to personally commit themselves to it" (p. 14). Through this kind of leadership provided by four principals, a learning community was created at John Dibert Elementary School.