Some professional learning communities (PLC) are successful, and others are unsuccessful leading to questions about which characteristics of a group of people are important to the success of the community. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the factors contributing to the presence of a community of practice between members of a PLC. Purposeful sampling was used to select two PLCs located in the same urban early childhood setting located in the Central Southwest. For this qualitative case study data were collected through observations of meetings, individual interviews and artifacts gathered from the meetings. Lave and Wengers' (1991) theory of Communities of Practice was used to vet the characteristics of a healthy collaborative team. This study looked at the structure, challenges and barriers of a PLC focusing on the unique perspective of the early childhood center. Using the communities of practice theoretic framework helped determine which vital elements were present, absent, or lacking in PLCs studied. Three main themes emerged from the data including: sharing concerns for individual students, the importance of trusting relationships between members, and the use of collaborative problem solving. Findings showed the importance of the building level administrator, the use of a meeting structure, and the establishment of trusting relationships with a common focus. Researchers can use this study to further understand how strong site principal support leads to successful collaboration between educators, how good meeting structure helps productivity, and how members of a team must trust one another. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]