Professional development is central to improving learning and teaching in schools (Opfer & Pedder, 2011; Shirrell et al., 2019). Professional learning communities (PLCs) has been advocated as one of the crucial forms of continuing professional development (Sims et al., 2021). PLC is defined as “a group of people sharing and critically interrogating their practice in an ongoing, reflective, collaborative, inclusive, learning-oriented, growth-promoting way; operating as a collective enterprise” (Stoll et al., 2006, p. 223). This widely-cited, comprehensive definition highlights collaboration, sustained learning, and reflection as hallmarks associated with PLCs. 

Formal research linked with PLCs emerged in the 1980s (Stoll et al., 2006). Two important reviews (Stoll et al., 2006; Vescio et al., 2008) were conducted to synthesise the body of literature on PLCs from the 1980s to the early 2000s. These two reviews provide insights into the nature and implementation of PLCs, though these insights are mainly based on the research in the United States and some other countries or nations in the Western world (e.g., England). 

As a continuity of Stoll et al. (2006) and Vescio et al. (2008), a few reviews relevant to PLCs have been published recently (e.g., Dogan et al., 2016). However, these review articles are either confined to the research of PLCs in a single country (e.g., China (Qiao et al., 2018), South Korea (Lee & Kim, 2016)) or address a single aspect of PLCs (Dogan et al., 2016). There are no systematic reviews on PLCs in the Global South found in the literature till the present. For the purpose of this review, Global South refers to the low- and middle-income countries in the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania (Dados & Connell, 2012).

The current systematic review of the research on PLCs in the Global South is timely and significant for three main reasons. Firstly, a rapid scan of the contemporary literature shows an emerging body of research on PLCs in the Global South published after the early 2000s. It is timely to uncover and synthesise evidence on key aspects (e.g., implementation and sustainability) of PLCs in these contexts of Global South. 

This review is significant in building up a robust evidence base to inform development, improvement and sustainability of PLCs as a model of professional development in the Global South. Working towards achievement of SDG4 (Sustainable Development Goal 4) is an important pathway to supporting development and social equity of low-and-middle-income countries. SDG4 aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” (see United Nations). Developing effective teachers and school leaders plays a critical role in improving inclusive and equitable quality education, given its positive effects on learning and teaching (Opfer & Pedder, 2011; Shirrell et al., 2019; Sims et al., 2021). This review provides contemporary, evidence-based insights to inform research, policy and practice for developing PLCs in and across schools in the Global South.

The current presentation outlines emerging evidence from our review of 70 refereed journal articles on professional learning community (PLC) in the Global South to discuss the following questions.

1. How are PLCs defined?
2. How and by whom are PLCs initiated?
3. What are the impacts of PLCs on professional development for teachers and school leaders?
4. What are the conditions for initiating, implementing and sustaining PLCs?

Seven main inclusion criteria were mapped out to guide the process of shortlisting publications for review. These seven criteria are: +Criterion (1) Time frame: published between January 2000 and May 2021. +Criterion (2) Language: written in English. +Criterion (3) Geographical locus: based on research undertaken in countries in the Global South. The list of these countries was taken from the OECD website (see this link). +Criterion (4) Type of research: based on empirical studies +Criterion (5) Type of publications: Peer-reviewed journal articles +Criterion (6). Content: an article is included if it centrally discusses the nature, processes, practices, and impacts of PLCs and factors influencing for PLCs. We adopted the definition (see above) of Louis et al. (2006), as a starting point to guide this review. +Criterion (7) Research settings: This review focused on research undertaken in K-12 settings. The review process involved five iterative stages as summarised below. Step 1. We entered a set of keywords in the search engine of Scopus. Scopus is a major digital database that stores peer-reviewed documents in education. This set included keywords such as “professional learning community”, “professional learning”, “professional development”, and “community of practice”. We set a default function in the search engine of Scopus so that a publication, any part (title, abstract, or list of keywords) of which any of the aforementioned keywords was shortlisted in the first round. We delimited the search to peer-review journal articles, English language, and time frame from January 2000 to May 2021. Step 2. We scanned the titles, abstracts and keywords of all 3 050 results for immediate relevance. All publications that seemed to be relevant to PLCs was saved for further scrutiny in the subsequent stage. This practice shortlisted 287 potential articles. Step 3. We read the titles, abstracts, keywords, and full texts of these 287 articles. We focused our reading to examine if these 287 articles fulfilled all Criteria (3), (4), (6), and (7). We retained 75 articles that appeared to meet these criteria for review upon this stage. Step 4. We developed a framework for appraisal to evaluate these 75 articles retained in Step 3 for the purpose of quality filtering of this review. This framework includes evaluation on research questions, research design, and discussions and conclusions. As a result, we retained 70 articles. Step 5. We developed an MS Excel spreadsheet to collect the details of each of these 70 articles.

The evidence base drawn from these 70 reviewed articles has some noteworthy characteristics. Firstly, there has been a prominent increase in the volume of publications on PLCs in the Global South in the past five years (2016-2021). Secondly, this evidence base has been mainly drawn from empirical research in China (approx. 33% of publications), South Africa (21% of publications), and Malaysia (17% of publications). Thirdly, the evidence is constructed from empirical investigations using a range of approaches of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods research. PLCs are conceptualised as a network, a space, an approach and a process. The review identified three complementary approaches to initate PLCs in the Global South: a contrived approach, a project-based approach, and a teacher-initiated approach. A contrived approach refers to initiation of a PLC as mandate for schools. A project-based approach involves initiating a PLC as part of a professional development project. A teacher-initiated approach forms PLC as result of the needs of small groups of teachers for mutual support at work. The evidence in the review highlights the positive impacts of PLCs on supporting teachers’ collaborative learning, development of teaching efficacy, innovative changes, and trusting relationships in schools. The review also found a range of evidence on conditions for development, implementation, and sustainability of PLCs. These conditions include strong leadership support, readiness of infrastructure, focus on learning and teaching, and quality of trusting relationships. In the presentation, we will provide a more detailed account on the initiation, impacts and conditions of PLCs. Based on the insights and evidence from the review, we will propose recommendations for practice, policy, and future research on professional learning.

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