Professional Learning Communities: A Comparative Study of Three Educational Areas in the North West Province of South Africa

Abstract

Even though South African policy makers and implementers have done a lot to improve education especially in rural areas and townships, much more thinking and policy direction still need to be done to improve education in these areas. The purpose of this article is to compare the perception of teachers and principals of their schools as professional learning communities in three educational areas in the North West Province of South Africa. A quantitative research method was used and questionnaires were used to collect data from schools in these three areas. 1251 teachers and principals were involved in this research. The major findings were: there were no major differences between the three areas in teachers' and principals' perception of their schools as PLCs, but there were major differences between schools in urban centers, townships and rural areas. This study has reiterated the fact that the South African government needs to rethink how to readdress education and social needs in rural and township schools, as the current policies have not completely addressed the disparities between schools in rural areas, townships and urban centers.

The role of collective learning in building professional learning communities in schools in the Zambezi region of Namibia

“…Even though that study was done in Finnish schools, the findings can also be related to the one presented in this study (Figure 6) conducted in Namibian schools. According to the other study that was conducted by Nkengbeza and Heystek (2017) in South Africa, their findings on teachers' and principals' perception of their schools as PLCs reveal that CL and application was one the components that had the highest percentage of the respondents who strongly agreed that. The study shows only few teachers and principals not considering CL in building PLCs.…”

“…According to Nkengbeza and Heystek's (2017) research, validity is the degree of consistency that your research process demonstrates, and research reliability is the quality of your data gathering instrument. In this study, there is content validity.…”

“…In this study, there is content validity. The questionnaires that were used to collect data have been used by many researchers like Nkengbeza et al . (2015).…”

“…As cited by Nkengbeza and Heystek (2017), Banai and Reisel (2007) and Leithwood and Riehl (2003), they believed that leadership is guiding others and is a process of influencing others, and they see supportive leadership behaviour as a positive attitude. Joint leadership requires the principal to work with other stakeholders as peers (Nkengbeza, 2014; Nkengbeza et al ., 2015). When leaders support and share their views with others, it can help them to learn from each other, and this will lead to a well-constructed professional learning community.…”

“…The concentration is not just on individual teachers' learning but on professional learning within the setting of a united group that focuses on collective knowledge and occurs with a context of mutual trust and knowledge (Harris and Jones, 2010). Nkengbeza and Heystek (2017) stated that collaborative learning has been facilitated in the 21st century with the overview of different knowledge. Collaborative learning today has extended from within the schools' teams to a network with other schools and teams, both national and international.…”