Blazing New Trails - Connexions

Professional Learning Communities: A Feasible Reality or a Chimera? 55
Lambert (2003) described small steps in the direction of professional learning
communities, e.g., study groups, research groups, and vision teams, but little evidence exists
in the knowledge base regarding large scale implementation. So, the question remains: Are
professional learning communities a feasible governance structure for tomorrow’s schools, or
are they merely a tantalizing chimera? Because they are so contextualized to the history and
culture of the organization, as well as to the dispositions of the members of that organization,
professional learning communities are not a model that is readily scalable from one school to
another. As Gronn (2009) pointed out, distributed leadership may replace traditional
hierarchical structures, may co-exist with them, or may disappear in favor of a re-assertion of
individualistic leadership. The jury is still out!
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