Investigating school conditions for teachers’ professional learning and development in Indonesia

ABSTRACT

Schools are expected to provide favourable conditions for teachers’ professional learning and development (PLD). Situated perspectives suggest that personal, professional and systemic conditions are influential for teacher PLD. Yet, supportive conditions for teachers’ PLD are limited for the majority of schools in regional Indonesia. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with teachers from three regional schools in Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia, this article uncovers situated patterns of practices that shape school conditions for teachers’ PLD. Teacher participants indicated school norms, resources and facilities, school status and history, and students and principal leadership as influential for their PLD. Professional communication and interactions among teachers along with leadership by principals lay the foundation for favourable school conditions for PLD.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional learning
• Indonesian teachers
• situative learning perspective
• school conditions
• case studies

Acknowledgments

The author thanks Dr Wendy Nielsen (School of Education, University of Wollongong, Australia) for her useful and insightful suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdul Rahman

Abdul Rahman is a lecturer in the study program of elementary teacher education at the Faculty of Education, Universitas Negeri Makassar, Indonesia. His research interests include teacher professional learning and development, school improvement, and education innovation and policy.