Supportive Communities: An Annotated Bibliography
By Jonathan Gratch
Lawson, H., Briar-Lawson, K. (1997). Connecting the dots: progress toward the integration of school reform, school linked services, parent involvement and community schools. Institute for Educational Renewal.
The report describes the outcome of an investigation into school reforms, school linked services, parent involvement and community schools in 36 states. Results include: school programs treated as add-ons with little intent for actual integration, and failure of teacher participation. Includes a model of 10 strategies.
Schlager, M., Fusco, J. (2003). Teacher professional development, technology, and
communities of practice: are we putting the cart before the horse? The Information Society, 19, 203–220
Abstract by Author: Over the past decade, education reform and teacher training projects have spent a great deal of effort to create and support sustainable, scalable online communities of education professionals. For the most part, those communities have been created in isolation from the existing local professional communities within which the teachers practice. We argue that focusing on online technology solely as a mechanism to deliver training and/or create online networks places the cart before the horse by ignoring the Internet’s even greater potential to help support and strengthen local communities of practice within which teachers work. In this article we seek guideposts to help education technologists understand the nature of local K–12 education communities of practice—specifically their reciprocal relationship with teacher professional development and instructional improvement interventions—as a prerequisite to designing online sociotechnical infrastructure that supports the professional growth of education professionals.
Rubin, L. (1989) Curriculum and staff development. In M. F. Wideen, & I. Andrews (Eds), Staff development for school improvement (pp 170-181). New York: Falmer
Paper/chapter discusses the needs of staff interaction in regards to professional development for implementation of new ideas into existing curricula. Looks at motivations behind staff development and the relationship between curriculum and professional development.
Stevens, L. C., Mandeville, T., Matthews, K. (2002) Faculty-teaching-faculty: a model encourageing teacher educators to integrate technology into instruction. Paper presented at the Annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, La.
Paper encourages and outlines model and practice for easing pre-service teachers into integrating technology into instructions methods by focusing on teacher educators, and cooperative teachers in field based observations/training.
Tapscot, D. (1998) Growing up digital: the rise of the net generation. New York, McGraw-Hill
Growing up Digital describes the various changes in society between the Baby-Boomer gerneration and Tapscot’s digital enabled N-Generation. Growing up Digital focuses on the distinction between broadcast and passive methods of information dissemination and emerging digital interactive trends. The author predicts changes in the social makeup of the 21st century due to the empowerment of individuals and digital media.