The effectiveness of technology-supported teacher professional learning communities in emergency settings

Abstract

Professional learning communities are becoming increasingly popular in emergency settings due to their potential to be a sustainable, scalable, and grounded modality for teacher professional development. In settings where formal structures of professional development are absent or disjointed, professional learning communities respond to the urgent need to develop quality teachers. Moreover, where teachers have experienced significant trauma, such communities offer highly valued spaces for socioemotional support. Increasingly, practitioners in emergency settings are moving towards using technology to support professional learning communities, either by facilitating them entirely online or by using technology for specific components. This chapter builds upon existing literature on the use of technology in professional learning communities, both globally and in emergency settings in particular. The chapter correlates such literature to findings from primary research that involved 280 practitioners of professional learning communities in emergency settings. We demonstrate the potential for technology to significantly increase access to and effectiveness of professional learning communities in emergency settings, while laying out significant barriers to implementation.