Towards Professional Learning Communities: A Review

Abstract

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have proven to be effective models of teachers' professional development. Therefore, for effective Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), PLCs should be considered in the planning of teacher professional development initiatives. This will enable teachers to address issues of quality teaching, learning and sustainable development issues. In the South African context, a `professional learning community' is an emerging policy concept. This chapter thus provides a review of the emergence of teacher clusters in South Africa using a reflexive spiral model and praxis tasks. The chapter also draws from the Namibian and South African teacher cluster literature to comment on how teacher clusters could potentially be translated into PLCs to transform teachers' practices as they relate to ESD