Professional learning communities for educators' capacity building during COVID-19: Kuwait educators' successes and challenges

The pandemic vastly disrupted education dissemination worldwide and catalyzed a shift toward online teaching. Hence, this paper aims to describe how professional learning communities (PLCs) in Kuwait's public schools foster successful changes in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of leadership in education 2024-09, Vol.27 (5), p.1172-1191
Main Author: Alsaleh, Amal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Communities of practice
COVID-19
Distance learning
Educational leadership
Online instruction
Professional development
Teacher education
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Summary:The pandemic vastly disrupted education dissemination worldwide and catalyzed a shift toward online teaching. Hence, this paper aims to describe how professional learning communities (PLCs) in Kuwait's public schools foster successful changes in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, in tandem with the leaders' involvement in PLCs and the challenges confronted as a result. Following the COVID-19 quarantine, qualitative open-ended interviews were conducted with 59 teachers, lead teachers, and school principals upon the reopening of schools. The findings confirm that all participants practiced PLCs through shared values and vision, collective responsibility, professional reflective inquiry, collaboration, individual and group learning, and support relationships, significantly facilitating the transition to online teaching during the pandemic. Principals and department heads engaged in PLCs by providing training, supervision, instructional support, empowerment, and distribution of power. Still, challenges exist in terms of educational resources, Internet coverage, and workload during the pandemic.
ISSN:1360-3124
1464-5092
DOI:10.1080/13603124.2021.1964607