ABSTRACT This study presents a systematic literature review of Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in the professional development of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. By analysing 25 empirical studies published between 2004 and 2024, the review examines the impacts, implementation dynamics, and contextual challenges of PLCs. The analysis identified three primary contributions of PLCs: enhancing instructional practices and pedagogical knowledge, fostering teacher self-efficacy and professional identity, and promoting collaborative cultures to mitigate professional isolation. Nevertheless, significant barriers – including hierarchical dynamics, time constraints, and sociocultural influences – impede meaningful collaboration. The review highlights a gap in understanding how contextual factors shape PLC effectiveness in diverse EFL settings. The findings emphasise the need for supportive institutional leadership, resource allocation, and the integration of digital tools to foster sustainable, inclusive PLC practices and improve educational quality. Recommendations are provided for policymakers, school leaders, and educators to design PLCs that align with local contexts while bridging the gap between innovative pedagogical strategies and the realities of EFL instruction.

ABSTRACT Professional learning communities (PLCs) are often positioned as a means of collaborative, situated professional learning and an opportunity for the development of a horizontal structure that might support middle-level teacher leadership. Here, they are considered in the context of teacher professional learning in Scotland, with a focus on relational practices within them. The study uses semi-structured interviews in two school settings to shine a light on how relationships and leadership dynamics play out inside these communities, resulting in some leadership dilemmas that emerge for school leaders at different levels. This qualitative case study, drawn from a broader doctoral study, is grounded in Analytical Dualism to provide ontological depth that allows for the examination of mechanisms explaining how structural, cultural and agential factors have influenced the internal workings of the PLCs in question. Data reported on here represent interviews (n = 8) with participants in two settings. Findings suggest that for teacher leaders and school leaders, some tensions are identified in balancing horizontal and vertical relationships. Finally, implications for practice, policy and research are explored, considering how PLCs might be re-articulated in the light of these findings.

ABSTRACT This study investigates how principals, as instructional leaders, support the identification and development of middle leaders in schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 experienced principals from diverse school settings. The study used purposive sampling and employed a qualitative research design, utilising thematic analysis to identify key patterns and themes. Four significant ways of working that foster middle leadership development emerged: identifying emergent talent, targeted leadership development, engaging part-time employees, and developing autonomy and trust. The study also revealed that principals exhibit servant and system leadership practices in addition to instructional and distributed leadership approaches. The findings highlight the importance of talent identification, flexible leadership arrangements, and personalised development approaches. For policymakers, the study underscores the need for system-wide support for middle leadership professional development and the recognition of the broader impact of leadership development beyond individual schools. This research contributes to understanding the principal’s practices in nurturing middle leadership capacity and addresses challenges in middle leadership professional development within the context of instructional leadership.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the implementation of visual timelining as a transformative reflective practice and examines its potential benefits for the professional development of English language teachers. The study was conducted with five English language teachers. Using a qualitative, arts-based research approach, the study collected data through participant-created visual timelines, written reflections, and a post-timeline meeting. Thematic analysis was employed to identify recurring patterns and insights related to teachers’ professional growth. Findings indicate that timelining facilitates three key aspects of professional development: (1) continuous learning by enabling teachers to recognise patterns in their growth, (2) emotional awareness through revisiting and processing past experiences, and (3) resilience by helping teachers contextualise challenges and transformations in their career trajectories. In doing so, the study contributes to theorising the psychosocial dimensions of professional learning and development. The findings highlight the value of visual timelining as an arts-based, multimodal approach to reflective practice in language teacher education, offering a creative tool to foster sustained professional growth.

ABSTRACT This mixed-methods study examines teachers’ perceptions on Lesson Study (LS) after a five-year project with 15 primary schools in Germany. Using an online questionnaire, teachers’ (N = 37) perceptions of the usefulness and benefits of LS, of changes in their motivation, and of preconditions for implementing LS were assessed. The results show that teachers perceived LS as beneficial in many respects and indicated a slight increase in their motivation in terms of enthusiasm and self-efficacy for teaching high-achieving pupils and collective self-efficacy. The results further suggest that LS implementation requires a number of conditions, primarily time and staff resources, organisational effort, and teachers’ openness and collaboration, and thus highlight the need to improve structural conditions to enable continuous teacher participation and growth through LS.

ABSTRACT Teacher retention is a growing challenge across school sectors and regions throughout many Western nations. Workloads have expanded and accountability pressures increased, with teachers often left feeling isolated, unsupported, and with low morale. Media reports blaming teachers for poor school outcomes compound the problem. In Australia, approaches to tackling retention commonly focus on teacher supply, looking to improve initial teacher education and early certification of pre-service teachers. In this paper, we offer an alternative approach focused on retaining teachers who are already in the profession by examining the impact of a collaborative form of pedagogy-focused professional development, Quality Teaching Rounds (QTR). Our long-term engagement with QTR led us to investigate the specific ways it built and increased commitment to teaching. Drawing on interviews with 82 teachers and six principals at 11 schools across Australia, conducted in 2022–23, we found three key mechanisms at work in this approach to professional development: 1) treating teaching as intellectual work; 2) validating teachers’ capabilities; and 3) building productive collegial relationships. We argue that professional development that reinvigorates teachers’ practice, celebrates their strengths, and builds strong professional relationships plays a significant role in improving teacher commitment to the profession, and consequently, bolstering teacher retention.

ABSTRACT This study examines how middle leaders – teachers who support their colleagues’ learning while maintaining instructional responsibilities – facilitate professional learning (PL). Through a qualitative study of two middle leaders facilitating classroom-embedded PL, we investigate how their facilitation practice supports teacher learning within and across PL sessions and what guided their practice. Analysis from two PL cycles revealed that middle leaders’ relational facilitation practices supported their relations with teachers and PL content, and teachers’ relations to the PL content. Our analysis showed that these practices were guided by three principles: (1) using instances of shared representation of instruction may generate robust teacher conversations, (2) specifying mathematics, classroom teaching, and student learning leads to generative dialogue, and (3) probing differentially on teachers’ contributions in light of their expertise supports teachers’ learning trajectories. We found that the facilitation practices, principles, and the PL structure reinforced one another, fostering teachers’ pedagogical reasoning about content, student reasoning, and teaching, as well as generative instructional dialogue about their future teaching. This study confirms existing research findings and contributes to the knowledge base of middle leaders, focusing on the facilitation practices of two middle leaders who learned on the job, rather than through formal facilitation training.

ABSTRACT This paper examines how middle leaders (MLs) in Irish primary schools lead and facilitate professional learning (PL) within the cultural, material, and social conditions of their schools. Drawing on a multisite case study and framed by the theory of practice architectures and scholarship on transformative PL, this paper highlights how middle leader capacity to shape collaboration is contingent, negotiated, and often fragile. Across the cases, discursive norms drawn from national policies provided authority but also narrowed PL into cycles of compliance. Material conditions, especially time, were precarious, leaving MLs reliant on goodwill or episodic opportunities to convene colleagues. Social – political relations of trust determined whether MLs were positioned as task managers reporting upwards or as facilitators of collective dialogic practice for meaningful PL. The findings suggest that while MLs are well placed to foster inquiry and create communicative spaces, the dialogic depth needed for transformative PL was rarely sustained. We argue that middle leaders’ influence lies less in formal designation and more in their ability to broker dialogue under shifting conditions. Strengthening ML requires legitimising inquiry, structurally protecting time, and recognising relational authority as central to leading professional learning.