Professional learning communities in secondary education: Experienced professional space for teacher development and school improvement

Professional learning communities (PLC's) are increasingly used to enhance professional development of teachers and school improvement. This assumes that teachers experience professional space in their schools. This article therefore used semi-structured interviews to reveal how 18 teachers perceived their professional space for professional development and school improvement. During the interviews, the extent, nature and focus of professional space are explored. In general, the results show that teachers perceive less professional space for school improvement. On the other hand, teachers experience professional space for their own professional development of for both professional development and school improvement. Five categories of experienced professional space are identified: 1) stronger experienced professional space for professional development than for school improvement (stable), 2) strong experienced professional space for both professional development and school improvement (stable), 3) strong experienced professional space for professional development, decline for school improvement (dynamic), 4) to a limited extent experienced professional space for both professional development and school improvement (stable) and 5) increased experienced professional space for professional development and school improvement (dynamic). Their sense of professional space seems to be more stable than dynamic during the school year. Finally, the sense of professional space is a result of an interplay between personal features (for example intentions) and contextual features (for example subject teams and leadership in schools).