ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores what happened over several years in a group that conducted an organizational change intervention aimed at empowering teachers. It focuses on how the members understood what they were about, what the group did, its relationships with external stakeholders, and how these all evolved over time. The change initiative took place in a Network of Independent Schools spread across the United States, hereafter called the Network. The group that is the focus of attention is the Network Faculty Development Committee (NFDC), a committee of teachers founded with the aim of empowering experienced teachers in the Network. The NFDC would be affiliated more with the Network's central office than with any of the individual schools. Two members of the Experienced Teachers Committee with whom Nancy worked were Catherine Lacey and Diane Wood, who would eventually found the NFDC.
