Schools operating as professional learning communities (PLCs) can act as sites for supporting teachers’ professional learning in a collaborative and dialogical context and improving educational practice for the benefit of students’ learning (Vescio, Ross & Adams, 2008). Professional learning requires opportunities that enhance teachers’ critical awareness and possible change of their beliefs, understandings and practices based on inquiry and reflection upon existing actions and decisions (Avgitidou, 2020; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009; Hardy et al., 2018). While several studies have noted as prerequisites of a PLC the existence of trust, respect and positive relationships among its members as well as systematic communication and collaboration, the international discourse stresses that communication among PLC members can be superficial and in-depth exchange among the participants of a PLC cannot be taken for granted (Nehring & Fitzsimons, 2011; Stoll et al., 2006). Therefore, the role of a facilitator to support the operation of a school as a PLC has been noted as necessary. Facilitators can be either internal members of the school community (e.g. head teacher) or external to the school consultants (e.g. school advisors or academics). A recent study with internal and external to school facilitators showed the necessity of their training in several competencies and knowledge to foster professional learning and transformational change in a PLC (Barrios et al., 2024). Especially, PLC members often require facilitators’ guidance to achieve reflection and critical awareness (Pareja Roblin & Margalef, 2013), underscoring the facilitator’s essential role. While inquiry and reflection have been reported to be particularly valuable, the actual content, process and results of inquiry and reflection in a PLC are often mentioned vaguely. Specifically, in a recent literature review study on PLCs (Kansteiner et al. 2024) most of the papers point out PLC members’ exchange as a reflecting dialogue, since teachers hold conversations and identify problems about students, teaching and learning. But seldom is it explained what exactly turns an exchange into a reflecting dialogue and what are the opportunities for teachers to question critically their understandings or think of alternative reasons that explain their perceived problems. In the same review, we found that inquiry can be mentioned as teachers developing knowledge from their practice without necessarily referring to inquiry tools or without describing the knowledge that was gained from this inquiry. Last, while authors refer to reflective professional inquiry (Margalef and Pareja Roblin, 2016), we often have little information of how inquiry is specifically related to reflection or to the generation of knowledge that then informs practice. Taking into consideration the above, a programme for training internal (head teachers) and external (school advisors) facilitators was implemented within the LeaFaP Erasmus+ programme. The aim of this training was dual: to introduce the role and processes of inquiry and reflection in a PLC and to use inquiry and reflection tools to assist PLC facilitators question and rethink their existing facilitation practices.  This study presents and analyses the aims, content and processes of the implemented activities during facilitators’ training and how these enhanced their inquiry and reflection upon the practices they employ to support schools as PLCs. The study also detects some transformations of facilitators’ thinking and practice as these were generated during and after their participation in their training. Finally, it relates the inquiry processes enacted during their training to their reflections and repositioning regarding their role and processes they employ to support schools as PLCs.

Two separate groups of facilitators, 5 head teachers as internal facilitators and 4 school advisors, as external to school facilitators, participated in four three-hour workshops that employed inquiry and reflection tools for their training. An observation protocol was designed to explore the training process and its results based on a literature review of how to facilitate learning in a PLC (Kansteiner et al., 2024). The observation protocol was organised in thematic categories such as the relationships and communication among participants, the opportunities for collaboration, the roles of the participants during training, the utilisation of participants’ responses for reflection and feedback, the difficulties encountered during the training and the accomplishment of the meetings’ aims. Both the author and a critical friend (a master’s student who participated in all meetings) kept fieldnotes during the meetings that were used for the completion of the observation protocol. Further, after each meeting, participants completed an online questionnaire evaluating on a five-point Likert scale the activities they have been involved during their training. Indicative items were the clarity of the activities’ aims, their satisfaction from the facilitation of reflection, an estimation of the usefulness of the inquiry and reflection tools. Participants also provided responses to two open questions at the end of the questionnaire asking them what they found useful or suggested to change regarding each activity they engaged. Participants also provided written reflections at the end of each meeting about their possible repositioning or change of their beliefs and practices regarding their role and processes they employ to support schools as PLCs. All participants were informed about the purpose of this study and that their anonymity was warranted and thus agreed to participate voluntarily. Open and axial coding of completed observation protocols, practitioners’ responses to open questions and their reflective texts were employed for their analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). Responses to questionnaire’s close-ended questions were descriptively analysed to show participants’ satisfaction in relation to different questionnaire items.

This is a work in progress. Initial results show that participants were involved in the inquiry of their own beliefs and practices as well as of the difficulties they face in their specific contexts to enhance the operation of their school as a PLC. The results of this inquiry facilitated both exchanges among the participants and were also used as a basis for guided reflection. Indicative strategies to guide reflection involved requesting participants to reason and clarify their expressed views and practices, detect similarities or differences among different views and practices but also among their initial (at the start of the meeting) and subsequent (at the end of the meeting) understandings of their roles and appropriateness of their practices. In addition, research knowledge and examples from practice were used to facilitate alternative processes and strategies to support schools as PLCs. This knowledge and examples acted as a basis for participants to compare with their own practice and reflect upon it. Participants’ repositioning concerned both their role and the processes they employ to support schools as PLCs. Participants realised that decision making processes at the school level were based mostly on their own beliefs rather than on evidence and exploration of the issues that concerned them. They realised that they adopted a role to balance staff’s different opinions to achieve a consensus rather than discussing in-depth teachers’ different approaches and suggestions. Repositioning included a shift away from emphasizing the difficulties they face and having low expectations to overcome them to detecting the reasons of these difficulties and alternative ways of action. Skipping a managerial role and selecting a supportive role that enhances documentation, dialogue and the use of appropriate tools for inquiry and reflection were some of the alternatives that participants agreed upon.

Avgitidou, S. (2020). Facilitating teachers as action researchers and reflective practitioners: new issues and proposals, Educational Action Research, 28(2), 175-191. DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2019.1654900 Barrios, E., Torres-Sánchez, M., Sanchidrián, C., Kansteiner, K., Louca, L., Avgitidou, S., del Arco, R., Gallego, M. M., Emstad, A. B., Frick, E., Iliopoulou, K., Knutsen, B., Lang, P., Rümmele, K., Stylianidou, E., & Theurl, P. (2024). International report on PLC leaders’ and facilitators’ experiences, practices, challenges and needs. LeaFaP Project. https://www.leafap.eu/ Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2009). Inquiry as Stance: Practitioner Research for the Next Generation. New York: Teachers College Press. Hardy, I., Ronnerman, K., Edward-Groves, C. (2018). Transforming professional learning: Educational action research in practice. European Educational Research Journal, 17(3), 421-441. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904117690409. Kansteiner, K., Barrios, E., Louca, L., Avgitidou, S., Rümmele, K., Emstad, A. B., Constantinou, M., Frick, E., Frirdich, G., Iliopoulou, K., Joos, K., Knutsen, B., Sanchidrián, C., Sapounidis, T., Theurl, P., Torres, M., & Welther, S. (2024). Leading and facilitating professional learning communities – Mapping the theoretical foundation by an international literature research. LeaFaP Project. https://www.leafap.eu/ Margalef, L., & Pareja Roblin, N. P. (2016). Unpacking the roles of the facilitator in higher education professional learning communities. Educational Research and Evaluation, 22(3-4), 155-172. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2016.1247722 Nehring, J. & Fitzsimons, G. (2011).The professional learning community as subversive activity: countering the culture of conventional schooling. Professional Development in Education, 37(4), 513-535. doi: 10.1080/19415257.2010.536072 Pareja Roblin, N., & Margalef, L. (2013). Learning from dilemmas: teacher professional development through collaborative action and reflection. Teachers and teaching, 19(1), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2013.744196 Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7, 221-258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-006-0001-8 Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of Qualitative Research: Grounded Theory. Procedures and Techniques. London: SAGE. Vescio, V., Ross D. & Adams, A. (2008). A review of research on the impact of professional learning communities on teaching practice and student learning. Teaching and Teacher education, 24(1), 80-91. DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2007.01.004