Teacher leadership enactment in professional learning community contexts: towards a better understanding of the phenomenon

TLDR

Professional learning communities have gained attention but rely on collective work toward shared goals, requiring teacher leaders to support meaningful interactions. This article reports an ethnographic case study of three PLCs to investigate how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework. The study employs an ethnographic case study design with an intervention framework to examine teacher leadership’s role in PLC conversations. Teacher leadership shows potential to support PLC conversations across three dimensions of its construct.

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the importance of teacher leaders. In this article, we report on an ethnographic case study involving three PLCs investigating how teacher leadership supports PLC conversations using an intervention framework provided by the research team. The findings showed that teacher leadership has potential in supporting PLC conversations along three dimensions of its construct.