| There is a call for school leaders to create a professional, collaborative culture in their schools. Recent research has found that the opportunity for teacher conversation is part of what makes for a collegial work environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the critical role that "professional conversation," i.e. the planned contexts in which discussions occur between colleagues about issues related to the profession, plays in building collegiality and a collaborative school culture.; The inquiry identifies and examines the multiple opportunities available to teachers in three schools known for their promotion of collaborative efforts. One teacher in each building is the focus of the study. It investigates what teachers talk about in conversations with their peers, what they learn from their conversations, and what they perceive to be the value and consequences of professional conversations.; Data, obtained from interviews, observations of teachers in conversation, documents that report on conversation opportunities or are materials that result from conversations, and fieldnotes, provide the basis for both a rich description and a penetrating analysis of teachers' conversations. The teachers' stories are told via portraits that synthesize their lived experience and convey who they are as teachers learning through conversation.; The findings suggest that teachers talk with numerous colleagues during the day but that their conversations with grade level peers are the most frequent and substantive. While conversations occur at various times of day and in various locations, the most substantive conversations take place in the privacy of a classroom when time pressures are absent. These substantive conversations about teaching and learning concerns appear to occur because support for collaboration exists in the buildings.; Conversation contexts appear to be both informal, i.e. initiated by teachers themselves around concerns relevant to their day-to-day practice, and formal, i.e. initiated by others---often administrators---around concerns on their agendas. Teachers talk with intention, that is, their conversations serve specific purposes. Topics about which they talk deal with personal, instructional and organizational needs. Furthermore, during their interactions, teachers take on different roles at different times. The study notes that teachers face constraints with regard to their professional conversations, lack of time and how time is used mentioned most frequently. The learning that results from professional conversations is personal, context-specific and dependent upon each teacher's individual situation.; The study provides the educational community with an in depth view of the phenomenon of professional conversation and highlights the ways in which opportunities for professional conversation impact teachers' professional lives. In so doing, it offers a strong rationale to school leaders for providing multiple vehicles for getting teachers together to talk about their craft. |
