one to do something smoothly and In teaching, know-how is specific to efficiently.” subject matter and encompasses expertise in strategies for responding to student difficulties in teaching that subject matter (Shulman, 1987). Specific initiatives may require additional know how, such as how to implement curriculum activities with particular students or how to orchestrate collaborative discussions among teachers about particular students (Peurach & Glazer, 2011). As such, know-how represents the local knowledge needed to efficiently integrate the new practices into the specific conditions of the and teacher’s classroom school. The infrastructure for generating and distributing any resource depends on the qualities of that resource. In particular, know-how is a mix of explicit and tacit knowledge. Some know-how can be codified easily as a kind of for action. As such it can be supplied by professional “recipe” developers external to a school (e.g., Desimone et al., 2002; Garet et al., 2001). But know-how for most work practices also includes some knowledge that is not easily codified and must be locally adapted (Frank et al., 2011; Kogut & Zander, 1992). As a consequence, the challenge is to cultivate the tacit aspects of know-how generated through local adaptation as well as the articulation of know-how that allows it to be distributed throughout the organization. Given the importance of the informal organization for coordinating action (e.g., Selznick, 1948), we characterize the infrastructure of the organization for cultivating and distributing know-how in terms of professional networks. In particular, we attend to the concentration of interactions within cohesive subgroups or cliques (Yasumoto, Uekawa, & Bidwell, 2001). It is through the dense interactions within subgroups that actors can develop the language to articulate and then share their know-how (Feld, 1981; Nonaka, 1994). The question then becomes how an
one to do something smoothly and efficiently.” In teaching, know-how is specific to subject matter and encompasses expertise in strategies for responding to student difficulties in teaching that subject matter (Shulman, 1987). Specific initiatives may require additional know how, such as how to implement curriculum activities with particular students or how to orchestrate collaborative discussions among teachers about particular students (Peurach & Glazer, 2011). As such, know-how represents the local knowledge needed to efficiently integrate the new practices into the specific conditions of the teacher’s classroom and school. The infrastructure for generating and distributing any resource depends on the qualities of that resource. In particular, know-how is a mix of explicit and tacit knowledge. Some know-how can be codified easily as a kind of “recipe” for action. As such it can be supplied by professional developers external to a school (e.g., Desimone et al., 2002; Garet et al., 2001). But know-how for most work practices also includes some knowledge that is not easily codified and must be locally adapted (Frank et al., 2011; Kogut & Zander, 1992). As a consequence, the challenge is to cultivate the tacit aspects of know-how generated through local adaptation as well as the articulation of know-how that allows it to be distributed throughout the organization. Given the importance of the informal organization for coordinating action (e.g., Selznick, 1948), we characterize the infrastructure of the organization for cultivating and distributing know-how in terms of professional networks. In particular, we attend to the concentration of interactions within cohesive subgroups or cliques (Yasumoto, Uekawa, & Bidwell, 2001). It is through the dense interactions within subgroups that actors can develop the language to articulate and then share their know-how (Feld, 1981; Nonaka, 1994). The question then becomes how an