Correlating activities of teaching and leading with student learning has been elusive at best and continues to present challenges to educational leadership and school improvement. Research that purports panaceaic and episodic approaches has all but become extinct in favor of a large body of emerging literature lauding the effectiveness of sustained, purposeful, cohesive, and systemic foci on professional collaboration and pedagogical improvement, instructional leadership, and collective professional efficacy (see, for example, Adams, Braunberger, Hamilton, & Caldwell, 2021; Adams, Mombourquette, & Allan, 2020; Adams, Mombourquette, & Townsend, 2019; Chernowski, 2018).
The formation of functional teams of educators is both a powerful indicator and strategy in pursuit of increased effectiveness in teaching, leading, and learning throughout a school division. In addition, organizational and individual growth requires the skillful use of generative dialogue; clear messaging and commitment to establishing and achieving high expectations; attention to best practices in professional learning; and frequent consideration of the influence of trust and shared responsibility. That is,
…. when educators are provided site-embedded time and are expected to form functional teams, when those teams are able to convert their goals into guiding questions that form ongoing inquiry into an aspect of practice they deem important, and when supported through regular conversations with colleagues and leaders, organizational learning, competence, and efficacy are exemplary.1
excerpt retrieved from http://documents.sd76.ca/Publications/Publications/Supporting%20Leader%20and%20Teacher%20Growth%20through%20Inquiry%20Based%20Professional%20Learning%20and%20Generative%20Dialogue%2018-21.pdf
