ISEA • Volume 37, Number 2,2009 3 When Is a Learning Community Just a Pseudo Community? Towards the Development of a Notion of an Authentic Learning Community * Gerald Fallón and John Barnett Abstract: This study investigates how human agency interacted with, and impacted, the structure, form, function and outcomes of a learning community of special educators in western Canada. The results suggest that the contexts of that community - broadly conceived to include catalytic events, power structures, levels of agency, and members' knowledge and assumptions about the nature and functions of the learning community - powerfully shaped the members' responses to the types of knowledge being generated and shared, and the kinds of changes that happened as a result of the work. Introduction As both a symbol and an aspiration, the notion of 'learning community' (LC) continues to resonate in educational discourse, almost becoming an obligatory appendage to new educational innovations or reforms (Grossman, Wineburg & Woolworth 2001) while at the same time becoming part of a paradigm shift with regard to ways that teachers address and think about their professional development needs (Vescio, Ross & Adams 2006). The notion is invoked as both an aspirational goal and a putative vehicle to overcome educational challenges. The very notion of community itself implies many appealing features of human relationships - a personal sense of familiarity and safety, feelings of self-worth and vitality, actions of mutual concern and support, and appreciation for one's personality and contribution to group professional life rather than for rank or achievement (Barnett & Fallón 2007a, 2007b). Some scholars (see, for example, Achinstein 2002; Bower 2006) have also indicated that the social construction of learning in community appears to be motivated by a deeply felt experience that individual action is very limited in sustaining learning and school system improvements. There have been a number of theoretical formulations about the ways that LCs are supposed to function in educational settings and what kinds of potential benefits should be expected (Achinstein 2002; Pomson 2005). There has also been considerable research on the effects of LC in schools and school districts in terms of changes made to teaching practices as a result