PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WITHIN TEACHER LEARNING COMMUNITIES

ABSTRACT: This article aims to relate the concepts of professional development and professionalism projections to different kinds of teacher learning communities. In order to do so, we address a discussion based on descriptions of different ways of organizing these communities. Then we convey the subjacent features of borderland communities in which researchers, teachers, and future teachers work in collaborative ways without any regulations set by the university or the school. The end of the discussion shows that, although the methodologies seem innovative, it is worthwhile to conduct systematic evaluations of the careful formative and reflection processes that are concerned with the subjacent aspects of teaching learning communities.