scholarly journals Formalise, Prioritise and Mobilise: How School Leaders Secure the Benefits of Professional Learning Networks

Author(s):  
Chris Brown ◽  
Jane Flood
Humaniora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 161
Author(s):  
Esti Rahayu ◽  
Shuki Osman

As out-of-field teachers existence led to change in teachers, this research aimed to explore their commitment to learning and teaching, and how their schools supported them. Five Indonesian teachers who started teaching as out-of-field teachers and their school leaders were interviewed for this research. The qualitative case study was employed to explore the problem through interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. The findings reveal that the initial commitment to teaching, learning, and growing is an investment for further actions throughout the teaching practice. The schools provide necessary assistance through the induction and during their in-service in the provided and requested professional learning, being trusted and acknowledged by school leaders, and having resourceful colleagues. From their schools’ support, the out-of-field teachers become more knowledgeable and remain as teachers for an extended time.


Author(s):  
Atiya Khan

The professional development of teachers in India is still, by and large, based on formal and outdated professional learning traditions, often characterised by crash courses and one-off workshops. In education, blogs have proven to be an effective means of establishing and maintaining collaborative learning networks and helping members reflect on their professional practices. Information and communications technology (ICT) enabled practices of teacher professional development is still in its infancy in India. Moreover, there is limited research in India to secure foundational understanding of how and in what ways teachers of English in India use blogs for their professional development. This study explores the use of teacher reflective practice, teacher networking, and teacher collaboration, beyond formal ICT training, through blog-based professional development of English teachers in the Mumbai region of India. Using data collected from 32 teachers from three private schools in Mumbai, through ICT interactive workshop observations, questionnaires, interviews, and blog comments, this action case study explains whether and why blogging, as a learning community, has the potential to add significant value to existing professional development of English teachers in Mumbai.


Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Branch ◽  
Joanne de Groot

Teacher-librarians are often “lone wolves” in schools. This chapter explores how Canadian teacher-librarians are participating in life-long learning in the 21st century using Web 2.0 technologies. It also explores how one online distance education program implemented changes to help prepare teacher-librarians to participate in local and global personal learning networks. Findings from a Canadian survey on this topic found that teacher-librarians often seek out other teacher-librarians for advice and support, as well as relying on regular interaction (both face-to-face and online) with their colleagues. Other informal professional learning occurs through listservs, online networks, Elluminate sessions, webinars, TED talks, podcasts, Nings, blogs, and Twitter. New and emerging technologies are helping teacher-librarians connect to one another locally and, more importantly, globally. It is this combination of both local and global personal learning networks that helps teacher-librarians move from being lone wolves to members of the pack.


Author(s):  
Heather Robinson ◽  
Whitney Kilgore ◽  
Aras Bozkurt

The purpose of this chapter is to present the similarities and differences of three learning communities: communities of practice (CoPs), professional learning communities (PLCs), and professional learning networks (PLNs). For this purpose, researchers adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach and interviews with three connected educators and content area experts were conducted regarding their views, perceptions, and experiences of the various learning communities and how technology (specifically Twitter) is used as part of their learning in an open community. Additionally, the interviews helped explain the current practices in community development and support, the evolution from a lurker to a contributor to a community leader, and the evolution from a community to a network.


Author(s):  
Rida Blaik Hourani ◽  
David Litz ◽  
Scott Parkman

This is a qualitative exploratory study that focuses on emotional intelligence attributes of public-school leaders in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. The research questions endorsed the emotional intelligence school leaders exhibit along five dimensions: (a) self-awareness; (b) managing emotions; (c) motivation; (d) empathy; and (e) social skills. Furthermore, the study focused on how school leaders and managers utilise their emotional intelligence attributes professionally. For the purpose of this study, a qualitative research methodology was employed, which involved the use of interactive and participatory data collection in the form of semi-structured interviews with various categories of school leaders and managers. Furthermore, thematic data analysis was conducted, in order to reveal Abu Dhabi school leaders’ exhibition and utilisation of emotional intelligence attributes within their professional roles and responsibilities. While the study was limited to school leaders and managers in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, the findings implied the need for school leaders and managers to develop and nurture their professional emotional intelligence attributes, as many job-embedded constraints and challenges require the demonstration of essential emotional intelligence skills and traits. Hence, professional learning opportunities within the perspective of emotional intelligence need to be considered and developed to enable, facilitate and enhance school changes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
JASON MARGOLIS

In this article, Jason Margolis draws from complexity theory to explore the twenty-year negotiation between formal and informal teacher leadership in research and practice, making the case that there has been a drift toward a conception of semiformal teacher leadership in the field. Through both theory and examples, he illustrates how semiformal teacher leadership has the potential to afford school systems and educators both information and processors of information they likely would not otherwise have. Teacher leaders, in roles that are neither inflexible or ill-defined, can carve out intentional spaces on the edge of chaos to promote professional learning and communication in ways that solely school teachers or solely school leaders may not. In these spaces, productive complexity, agency, and systemic learning can coevolve.


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