Illuminating qualities of knowledge communities in a portfolio-making context

Source: Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, Volume 13, Issue 6 December 2007, pages 617 – 636

This article connects teachers' experiences of reflective school portfolio development to the idea of teachers' knowledge communities, the different groups and individuals with whom teachers negotiate meaning for their stories of experience, lived and told, and re-lived and re-told, over time. The reflective analysis makes the case that the development of a dynamic knowledge community among teachers is foundational to the successful reflective school portfolio-making experience. Critically important links between these two phenomena are established by laying texts from school portfolio development meetings alongside the qualities that distinguish teachers' knowledge communities.

In the end result, the research presents a fine-grained account of teachers actively working in a group situation, contributing to their individual and collective professional development. As such, this article adds to the teacher development and reflective portfolio literatures.