Summary: | This paper discusses an innovative professional development model based on a personal service approach of teacher collaboration in lieu of the more traditional expert-driven in-service paradigm. It presents a research-based Professional Learning Community (PLC) model in a large urban Ontario (Canada) school board that focused on transformational teaching strategies as a means of professional development to enhance teacher practice and improve student learning. The two key themes of the grounded theory qualitative analysis are also discussed. They include: (1) contextually-relevant PLCs, and (2) teacher leadership embedded in relationships. Last, the paper provides a framework for provincial, district, and school-level administrators to support the underlying values of teachers’ professional capacities as collaborative lead learners.
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