School culture and leadership of professional learning communities
International Journal of Educational Management
ISSN: 0951-354X
Article publication date: 8 June 2015
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore supportive and shared leadership structures at schools as a function of school culture policies and procedures.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study was conducted at three secondary schools in the Midwestern USA. Administrators and teachers were interviewed, professional learning communities observed and artifacts collected to explore school culture policies, procedures and leadership in the implementation of professional learning community practice.
Findings
This study concludes that school leaders must provide supportive and shared leadership structures for teachers in order to ensure a positive school culture and effective professional learning communities that impact school improvement. Leaders in schools must work directly with teachers to create policies and procedures that provide teachers the leadership structure to directly impact school improvement through professional learning community collaborative efforts.
Originality/value
This study builds on the school culture and professional learning communities literature by exploring existent policies and practices in schools as unique cases. Much of the literature calls for specific case studies to identify issues in the implementation of effective practice. This study is important to the community as specific cases that may inform educational leaders on mechanisms that may be leveraged to ensure successful implementation of policies and procedures outline in school culture and professional learning community literature.
Keywords
Citation
Carpenter, D. (2015), "School culture and leadership of professional learning communities", International Journal of Educational Management, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 682-694. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-04-2014-0046
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited