From 26 until 28 January, 50 provincial and district officials from Kwazulu Natal (KZN) province engaged in a 3-day workshop on Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). The workshop was the first in a series of 2, with the second planned for early March. The workshop was attended by Mr Dhladhla, CES Continuing Professional Teacher Development at the DBE and Mr. Manganye, Head of Teacher Development at KZN DOE. VVOB engaged MIET Africa to facilitate the workshop.
Participants explored the defining characteristics of PLCs, based on the PLC guideline published by DBE. A video, produced by VVOB of a Free State “PLC in action” provided the starting point for a discussion on how PLCs work in practice and what problems they may face. One risk, for example, is that misconceptions are reinforced. This lead to discussions about the role of district and provincial officials to feed PLCs with expertise and act as a bridge between various PLCs.
Based on their initial understanding of PLCs, participants erected a ‘brick wall’ of barriers to successful PLCs. At the end of the workshop, they revisited the wall, discussed and removed some barriers based on new insights about PLCs. Some frequently occurring barriers such as lack of time, resources and low capacity will be further unpacked during the second workshop.
Creating trust is an important pre-condition for successful PLCs and participants explored ways of creating trust in groups. They also discussed the concept of resistance, how it manifests itself in their work and what strategies they apply to overcome it.
Openness and diversity are key characteristics of PLCs. In PLCs, it is important to actively fight gender and other stereotypes. Participants acknowledged that successful PLCs are open to new members and outside support as an effective way to bring additional expertise and fresh insights to the group .
A good facilitator is another crucial aspect of a PLC. Participants discussed characteristics of a good facilitator. They agreed that facilitators need to be humble but confident, knowledgeable but open to other ideas, accommodative but firm, be observant and even have a keen sense of humour! However, PLCs where various members take turns in facilitation are likely to be more productive and sustainable than those with a single facilitator.
In preparation for the second, follow-up workshop, participants were tasked with reflecting on the learnings, and sharing and discussing the way forward with their colleagues who were unable to attend the workshop. VVOB, DBE, KZN DOE and MIET Africa plan 4 more series of 2 workshops on PLCs in KZN. VVOB and DBE are also planning similar learning trajectories for provincial and district officials in other provinces.
