As the need of Teacher Learning Communities(TLCs) and their benefits have been noticed,
activation plans for TLCs in schools are discussed. Preceding researches suggest, schools are
to be ready for principal leadership, democratic school culture, administrative/financial
support and guarantee on the teacher autonomy to activate TLCs. However, we can find
only a few school where such conditions are already made. We need to figure out how to
make a go of it in the non-prepared schools. For that, this qualitative case study was
conducted in an ordinary elementary school to explore teachers' experiences and the
meanings of a TLC. Data was collected from February, 2015 to February, 2016 by
participating in the TLC meetings, doing official interviews and informal conversations, and
social media resources, official documents, learning materials, photos, and videos.
According to the findings, the teachers, participated in the TLC, experienced ‘Sailing
without a map.’We described the process of the TLC dividing into three periods: 'departure:
starting in indifference', 'sailing: conflicts and achievements', 'anchorage: taking a break for a
new start'. TLC has meanings to the teachers as ‘community's care about my problem', 'a
support group', and 'a stimulant'. When focus on the meanings, we can get the desired
result from TLCs and improve the conditions for TLCs in the school system.