Digital ethnography of an online professional learning community based on WeChat for Chinese early childhood teachers

Abstract

Enhancing the professional development of early childhood education (ECE) teachers is an important step toward the goal of improving children's learning experiences. Building professional learning communities (PLCs) has been validated by previous works in the ECE domains. The proliferation of social media has catalyzed the emergence of online community, bringing with them their distinctive value in teachers' professional development. WeChat is the most popular social networking service in China. However, only limited attention has been paid to how ECE teachers engaged in online communities and how PLCs for ECE teachers are shaped online in the Chinese contexts. Thus, this study aims to investigate how ECE teachers engage in a WeChat-based community and shape the community as a PLC. Multi-sourced data were collected including excerpts and screenshots of discussions in the chat group and webinars, fieldnotes, and interviews with 12 participants. Key findings suggest that: (a) leadership is distributed through the practices of volunteer facilitators, (b) teachers' practices are shared through reflecting on professional reading and inquiring, (c) shared visions attracted and activated teachers in the online context, and (d) supportive relationships tend to mitigate the isolation of Chinese ECE teachers. This study addresses key challenges to the further development of PLCs based on SNS. The insights about how Chinese early childhood educators utilize the basic functions of social media can contribute to better practices for professional development in and beyond China.