Teacher Education in Schools as Learning Communities - Transforming High-Poverty Schools through Dialogic Learning - Article 4

Oct 15, 2026

Teachers’ professional development in Schools as Learning Communities (LC) can sustain and transfer a dialogic model worldwide. LC is a community-based project that transforms schools using research-grounded schools implementing Successful Educational Actions (SEAs). More than 600 schools in Europe and South America, often in high-poverty areas, report reduced dropout and improved quality and attainment. The article examines how teachers’ professional development is built across four South American schools.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Inequality and the need for community roles

Schools as Learning Communities and Successful Educational Actions (SEAs)

Educational Interventions and Transferability

Evidence across diverse contexts

Limits and conditions for recreation in new settings

Australian Journal of Teacher Education | Volume 42
Issue 4 Teacher Education for High Poverty Schools | Article 4 | | --- | --- | 2017 Teacher Education in Schools as Learning Communities: Transforming High-Poverty Schools through Dialogic Learning Rocio Garcia-Carrion Universitat Romiroy Virgili, [rocio.garcia@deusto.es](rocio.garcia@deusto.es) Aitor Gomez Universitat Rovira y Virgili Silvia Molina Universitat Romiroy Virgili Vladia Ionescu Universitat Romiroy Virgili Recommended Citation Garcia-Carrion, R., Gomez, A., Molina, S., & Ionescu, V. (2017). Teacher Education in Schools as Learning Communities: Transforming High-Poverty Schools through Dialogic Learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 42 (4). [http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n4.4](http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2017v42n4.4) This Journal Article is posted at Research Online. [http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol42/iss4/4](http://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol42/iss4/4) Australian Journal of Teacher Education Teacher Education in Schools as Learning Communities: Transforming High-Poverty Schools through Dialogic Learning Rocio Garcia-Carrion Aitor Gomez Silvia Molina Vladia Ionescu Universitat Romiro y Virgili Abstract: Teachers’professional development in Schools as Learning Communities may become a key process for the sustainability and transferability of this model worldwide. Learning Communities (LC) is a community-based project that aims to transform schools through dialogic learning and involves research-grounded schools that implement Successful Educational Actions (SEAs). More than 600 such schools in Europe and South America, many of them located in high poverty areas, have shown a reduction in drop-out rates and an increase in school quality and attainment. This article analyses how teachers’professional development is built in these schools. Following a communicative methodology approach, we analyse the implementation of the programme in four schools in South America. The main features are grounded in transformative theories and socially responsive research and provide evidence-based arguments and practical knowledge for effective implementation built upon egalitarian relationships and communication within the entire community. Introduction Despite the scientific knowledge developed on how to improve teaching and learning processes to foster educational success and inclusion for all, much is still to be learned about how to break the cycle of educational inequalities among students in high-poverty schools. Access to quality education is at the heart of the inequality issue (Darling-Hammond, 1996), and this issue is directly related to the quality of the teaching students receive. However, teachers alone cannot address all the complex challenges students face in their daily lives (Lampert & Burnett, 2015) . The question about how teachers keep teaching and how students keep learning in high-poverty schools cannot be answered without paying close attention to the role of their families and community members. As the African proverb says, it takes a village to raise a child. Schools as Learning Communities become a driving force of the transformation of the sociocultural context where children grow and develop by involving families and communities in all learning spaces (Flecha & Soler, 2013) . Learning Communities is a project of school transformation aimed at achieving educational success for all students based on the implementation of what has been defined as Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) (Flecha, 2015) . This concept is one of the main results ofa large-scale EU-funded research project, INCLUD-ED, which has been the only research in SSH selected by the European Commission as a success story for its scientific, policy and social impact (European Commission, 2011). INCLUD-ED: Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education (FP6, 2006-2011) aimed at identifying educat

FAQs

What is the Schools as Learning Communities (LC) model intended to achieve?

LC aims to transform schools through dialogic learning, grounded in research and supported by Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) implemented in learning-focused schools.

How do Successful Educational Actions (SEAs) relate to educational improvement in high-poverty schools?

SEAs are interventions that improve students’ attainment and social relationships across diverse contexts, including schools facing socioeconomic and cultural challenges.

Why does the article focus on teachers’ professional development in LC settings?

It analyzes how teachers’ professional development is built in research-grounded schools implementing the programme, emphasizing practical knowledge supported by egalitarian relationships and community communication.

Oct 15, 2026

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