Professional Development in Relational Learning Communities

In this book, Raider-Roth offers an innovative approach to teacher professional development that builds on the intellectual strength and practical wisdom of practitioners. Focusing on nurturing relationships between and among participants, facilitators, subject matter, texts, and the school environment, this book helps educators create a repertoire of teaching approaches founded on sustained, deep, democratic, local, and active learning. The author demonstrates that, within the context of trustworthy relationships, teachers can better connect with all that they know about teaching, learning, and their own identities. This, in turn, enables them to act on what they know in the best interest of their students and leads to the kinds of lasting change and commitment that can move the teaching profession beyond training for a particular skill set.

Book Features:

• Examples showing how the work of relational learning communities can improve teachers’ practice.
• A focus on the cultural dimension in professional development for teachers.
• A view of teaching and learning as deeply relational and transformative.
• Strategies to help facilitators and participants create processes to best support a fertile learning environment.

Miriam B. Raider-Roth is professor of educational studies and director of the Center for Studies in Jewish Education and Culture at the College of Education, Criminal Justice, & Human Services, University of Cincinnati.

“The clarity with which the book documents how disparate theoretical frames animate the seminar’s design and the intentionality behind each of the seminars’ practices is notable; it is the unique blend of gravitas and heart with which Raider-Roth and her faculty approach their project, that leaves its deepest impression on the reader.”

—Journal of Jewish Education

"This book provides an inspirational example of how professional learning communities can help teachers regain confidence in their own abilities: to explore challenging content, to support the learning of their peers, to transform their own practice, and to resist reform efforts that encourage quick fixes. This book describes the kind of professional relationships that many teachers hope to cultivate with their colleagues. It is an amazing testament to the power of individuals committed to collaborative and transformative professional learning."

—Teachers College Record

"...an important contribution to the fields of teacher education research and practice alike...engaging and inspiring"

— Educational Action Research

“In this stunning book, Raider-Roth beautifully illuminates learning in relationship. Her deep understanding of relational psychology and the role of trust in teaching and learning shape her discussion of a powerful set of seminars and ideas. At a time when teachers’ professional identities and the very premises of democratic education are under attack, we need this book more than ever.”
—Kathy Schultz, School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder

"As practical and useful as it is inspiring and renewing, this book is an important contribution to teacher professional development! Miriam Raider-Roth understands that powerful, transformative learning (for anyone, the teacher as well as the student) requires a community that supports it—and then, in these pages, she brings such communities to life."
—Robert Kegan, Harvard Graduate School of Education

“This book invites the reader into a fascinating and provocative discussion among many fields, voices, and texts. Miriam Raider-Roth proves to be the ideal facilitator for that discussion.”
—David Allen, College of Staten Island, CUNY

“An effective and powerful antidote to the usual models of PD, Professional Development in Relational Learning Communities is a thoughtful and engaging text that takes seriously the intellectual work of teachers and the importance of relationships in teacher learning.”
—Curt Dudley-Marling, Boston College