An Exploratory Framework for Community-Driven Competencies and Learner Profile Development

Author

• Cecelia E. Monroe, University of Montana, MissoulaFollow

Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Type

Master of Arts (MA)

Degree Name

Teaching and Learning

Department or School/College

Education

Committee Chair

Kate Brayko

Commitee Members

Dana Fitz Gale, Shannon K. Vaughan

Keywords

Education, Educational Reform, Organizational Change, Competency-Based Leaning, Progressive Education, Competency-Based Education

Subject Categories

Curriculum and Instruction | Curriculum and Social Inquiry | Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Educational Leadership

Abstract

As schools reconsider how best to prepare learners for an increasingly complex and uncertain world, competency-based education offers a framework for emphasizing transferable knowledge, skills, dispositions, learner agency, and whole-child development. Yet while substantial literature addresses the characteristics and implementation of competency-based education, less attention has been given to how individual school communities might determine which competencies and learner profile attributes authentically reflect their educational purposes, values, and contexts. Through a combination of literature review and practitioner inquiry, this paper examines that gap through the eighteen-month competency and learner profile development process at Sussex School, a small independent school in Missoula, Montana. The paper asks: How can schools develop authentic, community-driven competencies and learner profiles?

The inquiry evolved from an initial documentation of Sussex School’s process into an examination of the organizational conditions and practices that support meaningful educational transformation. Analysis of the experience suggests that developing competencies and learner profiles is not primarily a curriculum design task, but an opportunity for organizational learning and coherence-making. In this process, community perspectives serve as an important source of knowledge alongside educational research, educator expertise, developmental knowledge, and disciplinary knowledge. Competencies can make visible the transferable capacities learners develop across contexts, while learner profiles can make visible a community’s shared aspirations for who learners become.

The primary practical contribution of this inquiry is an exploratory framework organized around six interconnected phases and four Pillars of Inquiry: Educational Research, Collaborative Inquiry, Stakeholder Engagement, and Systems Alignment. The framework is not intended as a prescriptive model or a complete implementation model for competency-based education, but as a set of structures, questions, and design principles that schools may adapt to their own contexts. Subsequent work is required to translate broad competencies into developmental progressions, curriculum, instruction, assessment, and reporting while maintaining coherence with essential disciplinary knowledge and skills. The inquiry concludes that community-driven competency and learner profile development is best understood as an ongoing process of organizational learning in which local aspirations are brought into dialogue with broader educational responsibilities.

Recommended Citation

Monroe, Cecelia E., "An Exploratory Framework for Community-Driven Competencies and Learner Profile Development" (2026). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 12767.
https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/12767