Linking Leadership and School Context to Professional Learning Community Characteristics

• In Event: Learning Communities, Context, and Positionality in Supervision and Instructional Leadership

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are increasingly seen as promising contexts for teachers’ continuous professional development. Core characteristics of these communities include reflective dialogue, deprivatized practice, and collective responsibility. It is important to gain insight into how leadership and context variables are related to teachers’ perception of these PLC characteristics in their school. Survey data were collected from 495 experienced Flemish teachers in 48 primary schools. Results of multilevel analyses demonstrated that instructional and transformational school leadership both matter in relation to PLCs, but that they are related to different characteristics. Teacher leadership is significantly associated with one of the characteristics. Regarding the context variables, teachers in alternative schools have higher perceptions of all characteristics than teachers in traditional schools.

Authors

• Bénédicte Vanblaere, Ghent University

• Geert Devos, Ghent University