Supporting (Migrant) Teachers’ Work-Integrated Learning via Professional Learning Communities: A Perspective from the Gulf
摘要
Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) remain underutilized in various academic contexts in the Gulf despite ample evidence supporting their significance for career growth, and specifically, migrant teachers’ work-integrated learning (WIL), creating opportunities for continued professional learning and development (PLD). This chapter mainly explores the role of PLCs in facilitating the WIL and lifelong PLD of foreign-educated migrant teachers in the affluent Gulf region. Unacquainted with their new work contexts, migrant teachers often encounter pedagogical challenges, such as student learning behaviour and motivation, social and professional norms of a new workplace, divergent teacher and student expectations, designing context-specific and culture-sensitive resource materials, and appropriate assessment tools and procedures. To offset these challenges, strategically established PLCs can furnish the necessary support for the teachers’ WIL, fostering shared learning experiences, reflective practices, and collaborative efforts for pedagogical excellence. In this chapter, we trace the theoretical underpinnings of WIL and PLCs in the literature, followed by a discussion of factors influencing PLCs’ development and sustainability, and their positive role in teachers’ WIL, continued PLD, and student learning and achievement. A case study from the Gulf academic context is included to elucidate how a well-planned PLC can manage its member teachers’ WIL, transforming their professional lives and pedagogy. The PLC effectively facilitated the teachers’ WIL, promoting their professional excellence and enhancing student learning outcomes. The case study underscores the importance of strategic collaboration, synergistic academic efforts, interdependence, and a shared vision while advocating for the broader adoption of PLCs in educational settings to support WIL.