What do Teacher Leaders Value About Regional STEM Professional Learning Communities?
A primary goal of this research study was to qualitatively explore the experience of teacher leaders in the FOCUS MSP program, using the FOCUS model of effective instructional leadership (Loucks-Horsley, Hewson, Love, & Stiles, 1998; Burch & Spillane, 2003; and Mangin, 2005) and learning communities (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002) to characterize their classroom and school leadership practices. Over the past six years, the FOCUS (Faculty Outreach Collaboratives Uniting Scientists, Students, and Schools) professional development program provided K-12 teachers in three partner districts with the content knowledge, classroom lessons, and strategies to teach science and math in their classrooms. Researchers (Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon, 2001; Penuel, Fishman, Yamaguchi, Gallagher, 2007) have outlined how effective professional development can influence teacher knowledge and practice, especially in implementation of innovative curricula. They found evidence supporting the value of the certain structural features of professional development such as reform orientation, duration of professional development, and the collective participation of teachers from the same school in addition to core features such as a focus on content knowledge, active learning approaches geared toward adult learners, and a high level of coherence with other reform activities and standards in the teachers' local school contexts. These structural and core features characterized the professional development in FOCUS Lessons presented through FOCUS professional development using Bybee's (1997) 5 E learning cycle were highly regarded for their quality and accessibility and teachers often asked each other for "FOCUS lessons" after colleagues returned from conferences or institutes. The FOCUS name became synonymous with high quality math and science lessons that could be taught the next day. One Professional Development Provider (PDP) and her principal shared with the FOCUS leadership that their school became a California distinguished school because of the professional development received by almost every school site member who used FOCUS lessons to teach math and science.
Another goal was to understand what teacher leaders valued about the regional network represented by FOCUS, to provide insight into what features of the regional network should be sustained, and who might be involved in supporting regional networks. Teachers also had leadership opportunities through the Teacher Leader Cadre (TLC) to become professional development providers (PDPs) or site teacher leaders (STLs) at their schools. FOCUS TLC events and meetings brought teachers together from within or across districts for collaboration and also provided them with support from UC Irvine faculty and FOCUS staff. During the first three years of the project, teachers were recruited from elementary and secondary levels across science and math content areas through invitation at their schools and sometimes through district contacts. During the last two years of the project, the Teacher Leader Cadre solidified as a regional network organization of teachers with access to mentoring from master teachers and began to provide professional development to their peers across school districts with similar student populations. The regional nature of the organization allowed these teachers to deepen their community of practice beyond the specific conditions of their schools and districts. Collaboration theory describes different degrees and types of linkages that may develop between P-16 partners (Gajda, 2004). In this literature, networks are lower level forms of collaboration, limited to exploring interests and sharing information. Higher levels of integration are achieved in partnerships that seek to cooperate whereby the group plans to achieve mutual goals while maintaining separate identities. Collaboration at the highest level occurs when the group must give up some independence to achieve a common goal (Peterson, 1991, cited in Gajda, 2004).
The present study was designed to capture "the personal" behind the collaboration experienced by the teacher leaders participating in the TLC. The focus is on the motivation and value statements made by the teacher leaders participating in the TLC where collaboration is an intervention as well as an outcome. Whether the TLC can be evaluated or studied as a form of collaboration that can be sustained after the initial funding source changes is of paramount interest to the FOCUS MSP. This study is a first step to understanding the way teacher leaders experience the collaborative formed by the co-location of school districts and the IHE partner in delivering STEM professional development to in-service teachers to locate the level of collaboration achieved thus far for these participants and whether higher levels of integration would be desired. The theory of communities of practice (Wenger, 2002) details the trust required for collaboration to move from lower to higher levels as do theories of collaboration.