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The purpose of this exploratory case study was to investigate the role of School Leaders (SLs) in building Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in schools, as well as to expand a literature-driven PLC model within the Pakistani context.

The study involved the purposive selection of two schools affiliated with a university. The sample comprised one school leader, one academic coordinator and five teachers from each school, altogether 14 participants. The participants shared similar demographic characteristics. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data, which were analysed thematically.

The findings of the study revealed that both schools have created PLCs to some extent and that school goals and culture were contributing factors in building these communities. Additionally, the SLs played a key role in promoting PLCs by encouraging teacher collaboration. The study concludes that SLs have the potential to strategize their actions to foster positive professional relations among teachers and ensure their well-being.

The study contributes to the literature on professional communities in Pakistan by validating a literature-driven PLC model. The model emphasizes collaboration among teachers, which can be facilitated by SLs. As such, the study implicates SLs in prioritizing the professional development of teachers to enhance student learning and achieve school success.

This study is unique in expanding a literature-driven PLC model within the Pakistani context, with a focus on teacher collaboration as facilitated by SLs. The model has the potential for replication in other contexts and can serve as a useful tool for future research.

This paper seeks to investigate the differences in the teachers’ professional development (TPD) by mentorship in workplace. The authors examined the role of mentorship in the PD of teachers and conducted a meta-analysis of pertinent empirical data.

Using data from over 2,900 individuals, 66 experiments and 12 countries, the authors presented a meta-analysis of the association between workplace mentorship and TPD.

The authors concluded that mentoring activities could boost the TPD to some extent. It contributes positively to the discipline of science and language, kindergarten, individual mentoring and curriculum research. In addition, the periodicity should not exceed 1 year.

The results of the meta-analysis are restricted to short-term mentorship activities, and the sample size is modest. Building upon the findings from the literature review and meta-analysis, the authors delineated a research agenda for prospective investigations. This includes an imperative for further exploration into the nexus between mentoring and the PD of educators.

Based on the available literature and meta-analysis findings, the authors developed a framework for the “Experts in the classroom” TPD pattern.

This is the first meta-analysis evaluating the association between mentorship and TPD.

Virtual professional learning communities provide digital platforms for teachers across the globe to join learning networks and engage in continuous and unrestricted learning. This study aimed to explore the impact of contextual factors on establishing virtual professional learning communities in Maldivian schools.

This quantitative study used a sample of 420 Maldivian in-service teachers chosen using two-stage cluster sampling and a stratified random sampling method.

The findings revealed that all three contextual factors – micro-, meso- and macro-contextual – positively and significantly influenced the virtual professional learning communities.

These findings recommend an integrated framework with micro-, meso- and macro-contextual factors as valuable instruments for educational leaders striving to establish virtual Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).

This study is among the first to examine the association of contextual factors of schools with the establishment of virtual PLCs in a country such as the Maldives, with geographically dispersed islands and limited resources.

When the emergency transition started in the spring of 2020 in the USA, teachers had to quickly switch from traditional in-person teaching to distance and remote teaching, regardless of their level of preparation. The distance and remote learning environments and contexts were different from traditional classrooms, which significantly changed the way teachers communicated and engaged with students in learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace learning experience of K-12 educators during their work transition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

In total, 30 qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with K-12 educators in Arkansas in the USA and synthesized their experiences.

This study identified four major themes in the workplace learning experiences of K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges in workplace learning, including limited time, information overload, lack of relevance and customization and balancing priorities; challenges specific to different subgroups, such as age differences, prior experience and access to technology; strategies of workplace learning, notably collaborative learning, on-the-job training and professional development; and support for workplace learning, encompassing both formal support from schools and districts and informal support from family, friends and peers.

The paper provides original insights into K-12 teachers’ workplace learning during the COVID-19 pandemic by understanding their adaptation strategies. It fills a research gap by highlighting both the challenges and support mechanisms in educational transitions during a crisis.

Drawing from emotional geography framework promoted by Hargreaves (2000), our research sought to depict the emotional geography of two faculty members who engaged in a virtual teacher professional development (VTPD) sessions during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to focus on capturing participants’ emotional closeness or distance while they were engaging in VTPD.

This study employed narrative inquiry by exploring three-dimensional narrative inquiry space: temporality, personal-social interaction and place (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000). Following this step, the participants were interviewed online through Zoom meetings and WhatsApp to capture critical incidents of their emotional experience. All collected data were transcribed, and some data from Bahasa Indonesia were translated into English. Member checking was also done several times to ensure the accuracy of the data as well as to avoid misinterpretation. The data were analysed inductively to generate coding categories using systemic functional linguistics (SFL) language appraisal (Martin and White, 2007) and emotional geography parameter (Hargreaves, 2001b).

The findings of the study revealed that both participants experienced greater positive feeling than negative ones. The participants experienced positive feelings such as seriousness, happiness, successfulness and satisfaction. They also experienced negative feelings such as insecurity, unhappiness, dissatisfaction and impatience. Such positive and negative feelings create closeness and distance among participants, mentor and workshop organiser. This study indicates that maintaining positive feelings is a passport to succeed in VTPD.

The study has two limitations. First, its findings cannot be overgeneralised since the analysis was restricted to data gathered from a small number of participants. Second, the scope of investigation was limited in virtual situations.

The present study empirically showed that faculty members need to engage in constructing or maintaining positive emotional bond with the mentor and other participants and create conducive situations to understand their own and others’ emotions (Mayer, 2011). Practically, a mentor in VTPD may ask faculty members to voice and share their emotional experience as an evaluation tool to make VTPD programmes more successful. Future participants can benefit from these findings by engaging in emotional understanding and building a conducive situation during VTPD to develop their academic competence, agency and identity.

While previous research into VTPD in the context of higher education mainly focused on designs, attention to pedagogy of online teacher learning environments, trends toward innovation in teacher collaboration and communities of practice in online settings, the present study specifically looked into how participants emotionally engaged in VTPD, which is inevitably linked to physical, moral, sociocultural, professional and political geographies.

This study makes an enquiry of the existing sustainable development goals (SDGs) knowledge of English language teacher trainers (ELTTs), who remain an overlooked stakeholder in education for sustainable development. Despite the literature on SDG integration into traditional teacher education curriculum, how massive open online courses (MOOCs) can help with capacity building of ELTTs is unclear. This study aims to further explore how the knowledge and capacities of ELTTs on SDGs could be promoted through MOOCs.

For the study’s action research approach, data of 28 ELTTs from higher education institutions in Ankara, Türkiye, were collected for six weeks using a survey, reflective reports and focus group interviews.

ELTTs with no previous training experience have a partially fragmented understanding of SDGs. MOOCs proved to be highly practical and cost-effective in building ELTTs’ capacity for building knowledge of and improving motivation to address SDGs in training programs. Further findings are drawn from ELTTs’ reflections on the lack of pedagogical content knowledge and collegial interactions in MOOCs.

There is little to no literature on ELTTs’ existing knowledge of SDGs and whether MOOCs can be used for their capacity building to achieve SDGs. The present findings may encourage higher education institutions to launch professional development programs that will equip ELTTs with the competencies to apply education for sustainable development in in-service English language teaching and teacher training programs.

The focus in professional learning is often on formal activities such as workshops, conferences and courses. There is also a tendency to focus on formal programmes of coaching and mentoring in teacher education. Emphasising the formal activities means that everyday informal learning in educational settings is overlooked. Informal coaching and mentoring could be utilised to support teachers' career-long professional learning.

This is a conceptual paper which draws on the author's research and seeks to expand what is considered as professional learning within teacher education – namely, informal coaching and mentoring. To understand how to support this professional learning, the lens of social practice is used with an emphasis on learning environments and learning practices.

Coaching and mentoring can be identified in informal encounters in the staffroom, school corridors and many places and situations. Findings are presented in relation to the importance of informal learning from and with colleagues and the role of headteachers.

More attention has been paid to informal learning, but there is still a need for what could be termed an “informal turn”. Understanding that informal coaching and mentoring afford professional learning opportunities to the teachers who both provide and receive coaching and mentoring can help to support their learning. Recommendations are provided on how educational settings can facilitate and support these professional learning opportunities while preserving their informality.