The role of Professional Development Communities (PDCS) on EFL teachers' professional career: PDC facilitators' perspectives

The dynamic nature of language underscores the growing necessity for English as Foreign Language (EFL) teachers to engage in continuous professional development (CPD). In this regard, PDCs emerge as an innovative approach that provides EFL teachers with various opportunities to improve them professionally, personally, and intellectually. Hence, this study aims to explore the role of PDCs on EFL teachers' professional development from the perspectives of PDC facilitators. In line with the purpose of this study, a qualitative design was implemented to obtain deep and critical insights into the facilitators' experiences. Accordingly, through the use of purposeful sampling, 15 volunteer facilitators who had actively conducted PDC sessions a minimum of five times and represented all geographical regions of Türkiye were selected for the study. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews and were analysed through thematic analysis method. The findings of this research revealed that PDCs offered significant contributions to the facilitators' personal and professional development through offering innovative teaching methods and strategies and promoting collaboration among them. This study also showed that facilitators updated their own teaching practices that led to enhance their students' learning outcomes and produced shared solutions to common problems regarding language teaching process. It was also found that PDCs fostered the facilitators' language skills in the target language. This, in turn, reinforced their sense of professional identity and self-confidence. Additionally, the results showed that PDCs played a pivotal role in maintaining the facilitators' professional development and in decreasing the sense of professional burnout. This study, however, revealed that both during the implementation process of PDCs and among the long-term effects of PDCs on the facilitators' teaching practices, there were some challenges including curriculum-related factors, school conditions and the administrations' lack of understanding of PDCs. Despite these challenges, this research concludes that PDCs support the facilitators' development both professionally and individually; promote skills such as collaboration, reflective thinking, and active use of English and offer innovative and updated teaching methods. This study may offer valuable insights for both practitioners and policymakers regarding CPD programs that support EFL teachers in improving their professional competencies and effectively fostering their students' academic progress.