Chasms and bridges: Generativity in the space between educators' communities of practice

This article presents findings from an ethnographic study that explored how participation in an educator network contributed to the production of meaning, identity, and agency among the teachers and school district administrators involved. Prominent in this process were the differences between practice in the network, consisting of dialogue informed by theory, inquiry, and reflection on professional experience, and the practice of participants' workplace communities. I argue that identities afforded by multimembership in these very different communities, along with the bridges participants worked to build between the communities, hold promise for generating change in the field of education.