Unwelcome truths of the professional learning community policy in Thailand: Teacher's sensemaking

Denchai Prabjandee
Burapha University, Thailand

The literature on educational policy implementation has shifted the paradigm from investigating how policy impacted upon schools to exploring how teachers interpret, adapt, or implement policy messages. Much research has been conducted in United States of America settings, so little is understood about how teachers interpret policy messages in other settings. This study extends this line of research to investigate how teachers in Thailand, situated in the Asian context with a collective and hierarchical culture, reconstructed an understanding of the policy, Professional Learning Community (PLC) and why they decided to implement the policy in their contexts. Drawing on sensemaking theory and teacher agency, the data revealed a complicated process of sensemaking through an interplay between prior worldviews and sociocultural context. Within the limitations of policy implementation in the context, teachers exercise their agency to selectively implement some policy messages based on their students. Implications for policy makers are provided.
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Author: Denchai Prabjandee EdD is a teacher educator, teaching and supervising graduate students in the Teaching English as a Global Language Program, Faculty of Education, Burapha University, Thailand. His research focuses on issues in teacher education, particularly in the areas of teacher identity, teacher professional development, and policy analysis. Email: denchai@go.buu.ac.th Please cite as: Prabjandee, D. (2019). Unwelcome truths of the professional learning community policy in Thailand: Teacher's sensemaking. Issues in Educational Research, 29(1), 223-242. http://www.iier.org.au/iier29/prabjandee.pdf