Abstract

A qualitative research method was undertaken to investigate support and monitoring offered to communities of practice by school principals to boost teachers’ professional development in high schools. Three high schools were purposively selected because of their involvement in communities of practice in their schools. Purposive sampling technique was employed to select nine participants because of the rich information they have about communities of practice and their engagement in communities of practice activities in their schools. The sampled participants include teachers, head of departments, and cluster leaders. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to get expedient information from the participants about support and monitoring offered to communities of practice by their principals to boost their professional development. Thematic data analysis technique was used by identifying, analyzing, and reporting themes within the data were analyzed. The study viewed support offered to communities of practice by school principals, type of support received from principals, and monitoring of learning activities in communities of practice by principals. The findings revealed that teachers received support from principals in form of moral and physical support, encouraging team work, and motivation. It was also found that the schools’ principals monitored the learning activities in both formal and informal communities of practice by supervising the meeting program and attending meetings, and made sure tasks given to teachers were properly done. The study recommend that continuous support must be given to teachers, school principals must monitor communities of activities in their schools on a regular basis, and proper follow-up support should be offered to teachers based on their professional needs.