A Framework for a Community of Practice among Private Schools

In a community of teachers, the greatest resource that a teacher can have is another teacher. All teachers have been beginning teachers who advance in their profession as they gain experience and learn from the practice of other teachers. In this context, this study aimed to develop a framework for a Community of Practice (CoP) for private schools. The Community of Practice are a group of people who belong to the same community and interact regularly to achieve their common goal or purpose with the interest to improve their practices for their personal and professional development and the development of their community. This study used Qualitative Research Design to collect and analyze non-numerical data to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences about the CoP in schools, hence, the Case Study approach was utilized to facilitate the exploration of the phenomenon of the study within its real-life context. The use of semi-structured questionnaires and the conduct of interviews are the research instruments used to generate the needed qualitative data. Thematic analysis was applied to these generated data to be able to identify, analyze, and report recurring themes. The results of the study showed that the schools’ conceptual understanding of CoP are collaborative activities among teachers, the sharing of best practices, groups/organizations with a common goal, improvement of the teaching practice, and a capacity-building program. Also, academic meetings, in-service training (INSET), school webinars and training, teaching pedagogies, and Teachers’ Professional Development (TPD) are the schools’ teaching practices that reflect the concept of CoP. to explore the schools’ concept of CoP and the teaching practices that reflect it. However, a CoP framework must have a common goal/purpose for it to function, a community/people who commit to sharing ideas and practices by meeting regularly, and a practice or teaching practice that manifests the activities of the community and its members. These are the components of the CoP framework that must be established in schools to improve teaching practices which also results in teacher development. Professional knowledge and practice in teaching will continue to change and increase brought by the national and global changes which affect the school community. Therefore, the school heads must address the management of relevant professional knowledge and teaching practice in schools to support teacher development and improvement of the teaching practice.