Teacher Professional Learning and Development: Insights From Blended Approaches to Reform Cultural Competency Within Professional Communities of Practice

• In Event: Respectful Relationships for Collaborative and Sustainable Educational Communities

Abstract

Teacher PLD programs are essential for refining teachers' practice and maximizing student outcomes. Blended PLD offers new ways to support professional learning, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era. However, limited research exists on effective blended PLD programs, particularly those that aim to transform teachers' culturally responsive practices in the Aotearoa-New Zealand context. Our study aimed to identify current trends and characteristics of effective blended PLD programs to inform and strengthen a current year-long blended PLD program offered nationally to leaders and teachers in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Through the medium of Blended Learning, the program aims to develop teachers' cultural competency and capabilities by engaging in pedagogies and experiences that are educationally transformative for teachers of Māori learners within a professional community of practice.

Perspective(s) or theoretical framework:

This Blended Learning is strongly rooted in the twin theoretical frameworks of critical and kaupapa Māori theories. Through the lens of an indigenous world view, participants explore the concepts of conscientization, resistance and transformative praxis. They reflect on how these apply to their own settings and their agency to bring the changes towards a more socially just society.

Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry:

A systematic literature review was conducted based on our contextual focus on blended teacher PLD to enhance teacher professional cultural competency development through communities of practice. The review drew from English peer-reviewed education journals published during 2017–2022.

Data sources, evidence, objects, materials or the equivalent for theoretical or methodological papers/presentations:

Eighteen relevant and recent studies were identified from peer-reviewed journals; these were reviewed and analyzed using thematic analyses. The experiences of the over 1400 participants have been determined from an examination of engagement practices and analysis of the evaluative feedback they have provided.

Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view:

The results revealed nine characteristics of effective blended programs that represent a range of learning strategies important for supporting teacher professional learning: active engagement, collaboration, trusting relationships and collegiality, sustained nature of learning, relevance and flexibility in responding to teachers’ professional learning needs. Considerations for maximising the affordances of digital technologies, the roles of PLD facilitators, and school leadership support were also needed. Additionally, three enabling conditions at the individual, group, and organisational levels are necessary to implement effective blended PLD programs.

Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work:

These findings were contrasted and compared with the cultural contexts in which greater teacher competency is required and the praxis that had been applied through the blended PLD to date. Blended teacher PLD programmes can support new and different ways for teachers to learn and develop more robust culturally responsive practices. The prolonged engagement with complex issues of decolonisation, indigenisation and social justice has had a profound effect on course participants and their wider education contexts. The learnings from this review have implications for future policy, practice, and research, especially for embedded and sustained transformative educational reform.

Authors

• Elizabeth Martha Ann Eley, University of Waikato

• Elaine Khoo, Massey University