Action learning in the quality management of professional learning communities in Indonesian schools

Action learning offers a way for professional learning communities (PLCs) to learn from experience, yet it remains unclear how such learning becomes embedded in quality management and informs continuous improvement. This study examines how action learning (AL) operates within the quality management (QM) of school-based PLCs and how learning from action becomes organisationally consequential. A multi-site exploratory qualitative study was conducted across ten public senior high schools in Indonesia with 27 participants comprising principals, PLC coordinators, teachers, and school supervisors. Semi-structured interviews were complemented by observations and organisational documents and analysed through an abductive framework approach. Four interconnected themes showed that AL became consequential for QM when inquiry reshaped predetermined agendas, experience from action informed management decisions, learning was retained as usable organisational memory, and schools negotiated recurring organisational tensions. An illustrative case showed that restricted upward voice did not necessarily end inquiry: peer questioning continued laterally before re-entering the formal PLC process. The study identifies concrete organisational mechanisms through which learning from action can shape subsequent PLC improvement.