The evolution of a teacher community of practice: identifying facilitating and constraining factors

This paper presents findings from a larger, qualitative study that explored the potential of a school-based teacher community of practice as a model for a transformative form of teacher professional development. This paper reports on initial findings from a grounded theory exploration of the factors that facilitated and constrained the evolution of a community of practice among a team of middle years' teachers in a small central school in rural New South Wales, Australia. These findings contribute to the discussion around how communities of practice can be established and used to improve teacher professional development in, and for, schools.