Understanding sustainable professional learning communities by considering school leaders’ interpretations and educational beliefs

Figures & data

Figure 1. Research model.

Table 1. Description of the study’s participants.

School	Name^1	Gender	Age	Experience in education	Role
A	Anne	Female	57	29 years	Principal
	Amber	Female	48	19 years	Assistant principal
	Andrew	Male	39	15 years	Teacher
E	Evelyn	Female	57	32 years	Principal
	Emily	Female	35	13 years	Teacher
	Esther	Female	64	20 years	Teacher

¹The names are pseudonyms

Table 2. Summary of leaders’ interpretations of data teams and their educational beliefs for School A.

		Interpretation
		Usefulness core components			Educational beliefs
	Usefulness data teams	Manual	All steps	Regular meetings	Teaching and learning	Professional development	Educational research
Anna	Useful for improvement, educational quality	Useful	Useful – but fewer steps can yield results too	Useful	Student-oriented	Collaborative learning	Not expressed
Amber	Useful for improvement, professional development	Useful	Useful	Useful	Student-oriented	Construction/participation Collaborative learning	Practitioner-oriented
Andrew	Useful for improvement, educational research	Useful	Useful	Useful	Student-oriented	Construction/participation Collaborative learning	Practitioner-oriented

Table 3. Summary of leaders’ interpretations of lesson study and their educational beliefs for School E.

		Interpretation
		Usefulness core components		Educational beliefs
	Usefulness lesson study	All steps	Using issue from daily practice	Teaching and learning	Professional development	Educational research
Evelyn	Useful for improvement through working together, lesson planning, researching student learning, PD	Useful, but second step not necessary	Useful	Student-oriented	Construction/participation Collaborative learning	Researcher-oriented
Emily	Useful for improvement through lesson planning, working together	Useful, but second step not necessary	Useful, but time-consuming and overwhelming	Student-oriented	Collaborative learning	Researcher-oriented
Esther	Useful for researching student learning, PD	Useful, but second step not necessary	Useful	Student-oriented	Construction/participation Collaborative learning	Researcher- and practitioner-oriented

Figure 2. Summary of the outcomes for School A based on our research model.

Figure 3. Summary of the outcomes for School E based on our research model.