The present paper starts from the premise that “being trained as a teaching professional implies something more than being part of the current system. It is also about being able to question practice, to learn from experience through reflection and deliberation with others” (Ulvik & Smith, 2011, pp. 640-641). Participation in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) involves joint reflection and deliberation and has been linked to substantial teacher professional development and educational improvements (Admiraal et al., 2021). There is broad international agreement that the term PLC refers to “a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way” (Stoll et al., 2006, p. 223). Wahlstrom and Louis (2008) identified four key dimensions in the notion of PLC: ‘reflective dialogue’, ‘deprivatised practice’, ‘collective responsibility’ and ‘shared values ​​and vision’. Reflective dialogue refers to PLC participants engaging in deep conversations and professional dialogues on relevant educational issues; this requires a willingness to be aware of and revise one's practice, to question taken-for-granted assumptions, to draw on the experiences of others, and to collectively seek options to enhance student learning. Regarding deprivatised practice, teachers participating in a PLC make their teaching public and classrooms are open for colleagues to observe, exchange experiences and expertise, and provide mutual feedback through strategies such as peer observation or team teaching. The focus on student learning refers to the fact that there is a collective responsibility and commitment among teachers to improve student achievement. Finally, the development of a common vision based on shared community values ​​involves a participatory and continuous process that implies exposing and confronting conceptions about education, learning and teaching.

Evidence exists that effective PLCs are associated with, among others, teacher self-efficacy (Lee et al., 2011; Zheng et al., 2021), teacher commitment to students (Zheng et al., 2021), changes in practice (Vanblaere & Devos, 2016), an improvement in practices (Dogan et al., 2016) and student learning (Burns et al., 2018).

One of the conclusions drawn from the Erasmus + project 'Heads Using Professional Learning Communities' (HeadsUP) (https://sites.google.com/site/plcheadsup/), in which this professional development strategy was promoted among school leaders, was that, for a deeper understanding of a PLC, direct personal experience is essential. In light of this conclusion, coupled with the convincing research evidence of educational and professional gains obtained from teachers participating in PLCs, it was suggested that initial teacher education programmes are a suitable context to provide student teachers with experience in PLCs (Kansteiner et al., 2019; Kansteiner et al., 2020). This observation led to another Erasmus+ project, 'Professional Learning Communities as a means for bringing teacher professionalization in teacher education' (TePinTeach), currently being developed by professors from five European universities (Weingarten, Trondheim, Voralberg, Nicosia and Malaga) and the Municipality of Linköping. Within the framework of this project, the authors, practice teaching tutors of prospective primary teachers, instructed their students in PLCs through seminars, readings, materials and collaborative strategies, and were organized in groups in order to experience this modality of professional development during their teaching practice. The group of students in which the innovation was developed consisted of 13 students (11 women and 2 men).

The research behind this paper aimed to identify the perceptions of PLCs held by student teachers (STs) participating in this experience as expressed in their practice teaching diaries and portfolios, in order to identify affordances and challenges of implementing this professional development strategy in the practical component of initial teacher education.

The experience of promoting PLCs in the 9-week practical component of initial teacher education was first started in the year 2020-2021 at the Degree of Primary Education at the University of Málaga by three professors who has previously participated in the Erasmus+ project HeadsUp mentioned above. It was decided that students would be invited to organize themselves into groups with the idea of instructing them in the concept and practices of PLCs so that they could end up becoming student teachers’ PLCs. In the 6 seminars that the professors held with the students they were provided with information about the meaning and implications of teachers’ PLCs, given reading assignment on PLCs and provided with some materials that could facilitate the structuring and documentation of PLC meetings. Additionally, the students were introduced to the idea of the Action Plan, which each one would have to elaborate individually and develop throughout their teaching practice, and whose progress would be the subject of conversation and reflection in the PLC meetings. Three groups were formed and each group was to freely determined number of meetings they deemed appropriate. Due to COVID19 restrictions, the students’ PLC meetings and the seminars with their university tutors took place online. The seminars organized by the university tutors were held every two weeks and lasted approximately one hour and a half. It should be noted that the students had never heard about PLCs before. In the first seminar, students were asked to answer a previous questionnaire to encourage them to reflect on their experience of working in a group up to that point (advantages, disadvantages, experiences, etc.), which served as a starting point to introduce the concept of PLC and highlight the differences with ordinary group work. They were also urged to observe the forms of group work, meetings, etc. among the teachers of their centers, with the intention of making them reflect between real and formal collaboration. Data concerning perceptions of PLCs was obtained from the reflective teaching practice journals and portfolios of the 9 student teachers that included references to PLCs in them. Both the reflective journal and the portfolio were compulsory module tasks. The content of both tasks, however, was chosen by the students, with the sole condition that it showed evidence of professional reflection on the issues addressed in them. A thematic content analysis was used to identify major themes in the data.

Three main themes were identified in the data: 1. The PLC as a source of individual and collegial learning STs are highly appreciative of the learning they obtain from participating in a PLC by collectively sharing and discussing their experiences and pedagogical knowledge. STs see this learning in terms of professional competence building, vicarious access to practical experiences from other members of the PLC placed in other school contexts, opportunity to look into the issues that concerns them from perspectives they could not have thought of without the structured deliberation in the PLC, and, above all, source of ideas and practical suggestions on resources and materials and how to use them, on classroom management and evaluation procedures. 2. The PLC as a trigger for reflection PLCs are closely associated to reflection in STs’ data as they see them as spaces where reflection is stimulated and enhanced by group deliberations and discussion of teaching practices and the principles underlying practices. The documentation associated to the PLC -more precisely, the agenda and the action plan-, is seen as particularly useful to frame the reflection within the PLC and also at an individual level. Additionally, STs come to realise the fundamental difference between the ordinary formal and informal discussions about teaching among teachers they witnessed in their school practice, and the opener, deeper and more instructive and enlightening experiences they gained from participating in a PLC. 3. The PLC as emotional support STs also view their PLC as a provider of emotional and psychological support. PLCs are described as spaces where problems or uncertainties concerning school practice can be laid out without the worry of being judged. The perception that all the PLC members were going through similar situations and facing similar difficulties, facilitated self-disclosure, and the openness and trust in the group.

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