To Örebro University

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) have been used increasingly in designing and discussing teachers' professional development, but how PLC are organised and framed differ between contexts. There is a lack of meta-level studies that aim to define and compare different ways of organising PLC. In this literature review of 32 studies, Cultural-historical Activity Theory (CHAT) is used as an analytical lens to examine different models for PLC in mathematics. By examining and comparing PLC in mathematics, the review aims to expand understanding of how PLC in mathematics can be organised and framed. The result revealed three distinctive activity systems with different objects: developing norms for collaboration, developing teachers’ understanding about mathematics and its teaching, and developing teachers’ repertoire of teaching actions. The activity systems vary concerning the use of mediating artifacts and the norms that regulate each activity system, but are similar regarding participants, context, and division of labor. The review indicates that the teachers participating in PLC in mathematics change their norms of collaboration, enhance their understanding of mathematics and its teaching, and/or enhance their ability to design and carry out mathematics teaching. Our findings can assist designers, organisers, participants, and researchers in making informed decisions about PLC in mathematics.

Professional learning communities (PLC) have increasingly attracted attention in research on teachers' professional development. The aim of this study is to identify contradictions that can occur and be manifested in PLCs in mathematics. Identifying contradictions in PLCs are important, as the identification and resolution of contradictions are crucial to developing PLCs. We have conceptualized PLCs and contradictions within the Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Our data consist of two iterations of interviews with four teacher leader coaches with extensive experience of coaching teacher leaders of PLCs in mathematics. The study distinguishes 26 manifestations of contradictions, taking the overall forms of dilemmas and conflicts. Our results can be used in designing PLCs in mathematics: they can be used to make visible and increase participants' awareness of contradictions involved in PLCs and thereby increase the possibility that the contradictions serve as sources of support rather than obstacles in the development of PLCs in mathematics.