Mapping the theoretical landscape of dialogue in research on teacher professional learning communities: A systematic literature review

Abstract

This study aimed to systematically examine how “dialogue” has been conceptualized and analyzed in research on teacher professional learning communities (PLCs), how it has been linked to teacher professional development and changes in educational practice, and how conflict, power, hierarchy, and silence have been addressed in relation to dialogue. To this end, a systematic literature review was conducted of 69 Korean studies published between 2000 and 2025 and selected from the Research Information Sharing Service (RISS), DBpia, and the Korea Citation Index (KCI) according to the inclusion criteria. The findings were as follows. First, dialogue was conceptualized from instrumental-functional, reflective, and relational-discursive perspectives. Second, dialogue was analyzed at the levels of presence and degree, content and meaning, and process and structure. Studies examining actual interactional processes and structures provided more detailed accounts of how meaning negotiation and reflection unfolded. Third, the relationship between dialogue and teacher professional development and changes in practice was addressed through declarative-indirect, outcome-oriented, and process-oriented approaches. Process-oriented studies showed how dialogue led to reflection and shifts in perspective, which in turn contributed to the reconstruction of practice. Fourth, conflict, power, hierarchy, and silence were addressed at varying levels across studies, and some studies identified differences of opinion, difficulties in speaking, and involuntary participation as important conditions shaping dialogic processes. These findings suggest that dialogue in PLCs should be understood not merely as a means of collaboration or reflection, but as a social practice through which teachers share experiences and perspectives, negotiate meanings and relationships, and reconstruct their practices.