The issue of professional learning community (PLC) has received considerable critical attention within the field of teacher continuing professional development (CPD). It is now well established from a variety of studies that PLC contributes greatly to teachers’ changes in practices, knowledge, beliefs, agency, and affective characteristics (Dogan, Pringle & Mesa, 2016; Long, Zhao, Yang, Zhao & Chen, 2021; Philpott & Oates, 2017; Tam, 2015).

In a narrow sense, PLC can be understood with the aim to facilitate school-wide improvement in teaching and learning and is usually linked to local school context where teachers work (Admiraal, Schenke, Jong, Emmelot & Sligte, 2021; Brennan & Gorman, 2023; Chen & Wang, 2015; Steyn, 2017). In a broader view, PLC is seen as a platform where a collective of individuals collaboratively examines and reflects on their practices in an ongoing, learning-focused, and inclusive manner, with the shared goal of promoting professional growth (Stoll et al. 2006).

The Special Education 1 programme (Spesialpedagogikk 1) represents a primary official in-service teacher training offer in Norway. This programme is assembly-based (samlingsbasert) with lectures and group activities addressing a variety of themes within special education. Teachers participating in the programme serve in either public or private schools (from first to tenth grade) across Norway. During the six assemblies they are grouped into several small learning teams (basisgrupper) for collaborative discussion and group tasks around cases. This CPD arrangement is similar to the concept and practice of CSTT (Cross-School Teacher Team) Cederlund (2018) introduced and examined in her seminal study in Sweden. The CSTT represents a form of PLC where teachers from different schools across Sweden but with shared pedagogical interests meet each other physically/digitally for CPD. This study concluded that CSTT can provide a professional space of diversity, interdependency, visibility, and transparency in which local practices are reflected on and transformed collectively. 

In our previous investigation on teacher motivation for CPD in special education, we found out that one main reason for the teachers to participate in this in-service teacher training programme is the desire for professional socialisation, that is, the thirst for learning together with others (Pan, Østby & Gudmundset, 2023). Drawing upon both the broader understanding of PLC and teacher motivation for CPD in special education in Norway, this study attempts to explore how CSTT is experienced in the Special Education 1 programme.     

The theoretical framework adopted in this study is practice architecture (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). According to Kemmis and Grootenboer (2008), practice is complex and socially established. It is a cooperative human activity encompassing saying, doing, and relating. Saying refers to individuals’ expressions, allowing us to understand us, others, and the world. Doing means the actions and activities we take and undertake. Relating indicates identity and role shaped in relation to others. 

Data were collected from the teacher cohort (57) of the academic year 2022-2023. Forty-two and 46 teachers took part in the online survey (as a form of programme evaluation) in the autumn 2022 and in the spring 2023, respectively. Various aspects of question were designed to find out the possibilities, challenges, and limitations of this Special Education 1 programme. In total, five questions were included in the data analysis process of this investigation. They were specifically focused on experience in group work. These questions allowed the teachers to quantify their experience and elaborate their thoughts and feelings with own words. Thematic analysis (Guest, MacQueen & Namey, 2011) were carried out to examine the textual responses.

in teacher CPD. The majority of teachers participating in the online survey highly appreciated working together with other teachers in the group. They experienced the cooperative learning process in terms of saying, doing, and relating according to the theory of practice architecture (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). CSTT created a professional space for the teachers to reflect on and share their own possibilities and challenges at schools (saying). Discussion around cases also allowed the teachers to examine personal values and perspectives and form a collective solution to a specific problem (doing). Since each teacher was assigned into and stayed in the same group throughout the whole in-service training programme, the CSTT provided a secured environment where the teachers could build up social connections with each other and drew work-related inspirations from one another (relating). Nevertheless, a small number of teachers were particularly critical about the arrangement of cross-CSTT. In their views, it seems not necessary and less fruitful to work together with another CSTT in the programme. Taken together, CSTT is recognised as a valuable and educative type of PLC for teacher CPD. It provides an ideal platform for teachers to engage in professional sosialisation. The programme’s learning outcomes are strengthened and enriched as teachers contribute their shared pedagogical interests and varied work experiences to the learning process.

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