Reconstructing professional learning community as collective creation

The article presents a cross-domain inquiry into schoolwide professional learning community. It examines tensions in how professional learning community is conceptualized and how it is enacted in the processes of teacher groups. Drawing on a study of contemporary theatre arts practices, it proposes a model of collective creation that highlights three interacting elements of a group's activity: means, materials, and modes of engagement. The article conducts a paired analysis of a primary school teacher group meeting. In the first analysis, it investigates how the group's discussion reveals features of professional learning community, especially collaboration, inquiry, and collective responsibility for student learning, as well as tensions in how these are enacted. In the second, it considers how the discussion manifests elements of collective creation, and proposes how these could be strengthened. The article argues for a reconceptualization of professional learning community that preserves the features identified above but extends these through the collective creation of instructional and conceptual resources for teacher learning and instructional improvement.