Cultures Built to Last

Systemic PLCs at Work

In Cultures Built to Last, two of North Americas most prominent educational thinkers team up to take PLCs to the next level. Richard DuFour and Michael Fullan recast the PLC process from just another positive innovation for individual schools to the central instrument for changing the culture of the education system: district-, state-, and nationwide. When the PLC process drives an entire system, the people within the organization develop a sense of identity that goes beyond their own classroom or office. They identify in significant ways with the larger system, which unleashes the energy of mutual allegiance and competition for the common good:

  • How to make PLCs an ongoing endeavour rather than a program to be implemented
  • How PLCs function as a crucial piece within whole-system reform
  • How to achieve coherence and clarity systemwide
  • How to approach systemic PLC transformation—from the top down or the bottom?
  • How to lead a PLC in a simultaneously loose and tight way
  • How to sustain systemic PLCs
  • How to recognize the warning signs of when a PLC is faltering

Published in 2013 by Solution Tree Press