Leadership and Infrastructure in Implementing Professional Learning Communities in Lahore HEIs: An Interpretive Structural Modeling Approach

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) are considered vital for teachers’ professional development and filling the achievement gaps among students. Implementing PLCs in higher educational institutions (HEIs) may be affected by various factors such as leadership support, infrastructure, environment, and knowledge about its usefulness. Identifying all these key factors is necessary for the HEIs growth and students’ outcomes. This study aims to identify such important factors that help implement PLCs in Pakistani universities by utilizing Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). The data were collected from fourteen university faculty members. This qualitative study first identified the important factors for the implementation of PLCs from the prior studies then established relationships among these factors and proposed a final model through the ISM approach. The results suggest that leadership support and infrastructure are important factors for the implementation of PLCs in Pakistani HEIs while time constraints, equal participation, workload, working environment trust among stakeholders and vague understanding of PLCs act as mediators. The suggested final model can be used for further empirical investigation and future planning and implementation of the PLCs.