Teacher reflections on their professional learning community participation

In the age of educational reform, the use of curricular and core competencies has been mandated by the province of British Columbia. Innovation, collaboration, and empowering educators to transform their practice to reflect these new competency-based and student-centered approaches to learning can be challenging. Understanding how to better support educators during this change may require time and space to rethink pedagogical practices and implement new strategies. Online Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) are potential learning spaces for educators to collaborate in an innovative virtual setting. Through qualitative research, this study explored the phenomenon of members’ experiences of their participation in an online PLC involving secondary teachers working at the same school. Themes emerged that characterize their role within the core of the PLC, horizontalize their levels of participation (high, medium, and low), and identify the equitable supports required to strengthen that experience. In addition, recommendations on creating, cultivating, and sustaining online PLCs in the future are suggested.