One of the greatest ways to transform education systems is to develop community-centered professional supports for in-service teachers. Given the rise of distance learning platforms such as massive open online courses (MOOCs), there is a growing potential to deliver such supports at scale. The community of inquiry (CoI) framework models the asynchronous, text-based communication that defines educational experiences within such collaborative learning environments; however, methods of CoI transcript analysis must be improved. This paper uses the University of Helsinki’s 2016 MOOC, Sustainable Energy in Education, as a case study on how the CoI framework can be used to characterize the educational experience of in-service teachers in distance learning environments. Using the CoI coding protocol, this paper employs a transcript analysis of the discussion forum posts on the MOOC (n = 78), and applies improved measures of reliability in order to understand the capacity of CoI transcript analysis to reliably define online learning experiences. The findings suggest that, while the CoI framework is able to characterize some elements of online learning communities, more work needs to be done to ensure the framework captures the more nuanced elements of such educational experiences, such as the effects of course design and the relative engagement of course participants.

Online professional-development courses such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) could bring relevant content to a wider base of teachers who might not otherwise have access to professional development. However, research on the relevance of such online courses is scarce. The main aim of this study is to investigate the relevance (individual, societal, and vocational) of MOOCs (mostly participatory cMOOCs) from the viewpoint of teachers now and in the future. We examined teachers’ expectations and perceptions of 10 courses before (N = 364) and after (N = 177) the courses, using an online questionnaire developed on the basis of relevance theory. According to the results, the studied teachers had positive expectations for the courses in terms of their usefulness for their prospective teaching (especially vocational relevance). Teachers’ expectations related to the usefulness of the course for the future (individual and vocational relevance) were most strongly met. Effort put into the course was connected to, for example, how the course improved the teachers’ interest. The results of this study indicate that MOOCs can serve as relevant courses for teachers’ professional development in science, mathematics, and technology education.

Purpose: This study examines the relational dynamics between teachers and formal teacher leaders (TLs). We examine the association between relationship structure and leader-member exchange (LMX) quality and the extent to which LMX mediates the relationship between social network (SN) measures of dyadic relationships and TL influence.Design/methodology/approach: Using survey data from 1,895 teacher-TL relationships, we employ path mediation analysis using hierarchical linear modeling.Findings: Our results indicate that voluntary advice-seeking and multiplex ties are associated with stronger exchange quality between teachers and TLs. In addition, LMX partially mediates the relationship between voluntary ties and TL influence.Originality/value: SN and LMX theories offer two complementary lenses for studying relational dynamics in organizations, though they seldom are used together, especially in education. This study bridges SN and LMX theories and measures to bolster studies of relational dynamics in organizations and highlights that in the case of formal teacher leadership, there is a need for school structures that enable teachers and TLs to seek out one another informally and develop strong social exchanges.

Purpose: This study investigates the reasons teachers seek instructional assistance from their colleagues. By examining both the reasons why teachers seek assistance and considering which reasons for seeking assistance predict shifts in teaching practice, this analysis provides new insights into how schools can leverage teachers' social networks for organizational change.Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on interview and survey data from a sample of 52 schools across seven districts in the United States, we first qualitatively explore the reasons teachers seek instructional assistance, based on patterns in teachers' self-reported descriptions of their instructional advice-seeking. Then, we apply hierarchical linear models to predict which individual characteristics and organizational features influence the reasons' teachers seek assistance and which reasons for seeking assistance influence their subsequent shifts in teaching practice.Findings: Teachers' positions in their social networks, their experience levels and their organizational contexts predict the reasons for which they seek instructional assistance. In addition, teachers seeking advice based on perceptions of their peers' experience or resource access predicts positive shifts in teaching practice; however, fewer than half of teachers' instructional-advice seeking ties reported in our sample were motivated by either of these two reasons.Practical implications: The findings highlight the potential for school leaders and policymakers to improve teaching practice by making educators' experience and resources more accessible within schools and creating structures that enable collaboration.Originality/value: This paper addresses a gap in social network literature by moving beyond a structuralist analysis of teachers' collegial networks to investigate teachers' motivations for pursuing advice-seeking ties.

Teachers’ professional identities are the foundation of their practice. Previous scholarship has largely overlooked the extent to which the broader institutional environment shapes teachers’ professional identities. In this study, I bridge institutional logics with theory on teacher professional identity to empirically examine the deeply institutionalized, taken-for-granted ways U.S. society has come to think of teaching (e.g., as a moral calling, as a profession, as labor), which are internalized by PK–12 teachers. I draw on survey data from 950 teachers across four U.S. states (California, New York, Florida, and Texas) and develop an original survey measure to capture what I term teachers’“institutionalized conceptions of teaching.” Across diverse state policy contexts, I find that teachers’ conceptions of teaching are guided by three underlying logics: (1) an accountability logic, (2) a democratic logic, and (3) a moral calling logic. I then examine the relationship between institutional logics and teachers’ professional identities. I find that the taken-for-granted ways society frames teaching may be associated with dimensions of teachers’ professional identity, such as self-efficacy and professional commitment. The findings suggest that supporting the professional well-being of PK–12 teachers may require shifting the deeply institutionalized norms of the profession to be more aligned with teachers’ democratic aims—rather than maintaining our system’s deep norms around external accountability and view of teaching as a moral calling. The study offers methodological contributions to the study of logics and practical implications for the field of teaching.