Quantifying teacher Professional Community in 36 countries - a test for measurement invariance using the Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA) method.

This study presents the results of a test of the professional community latent concept for measurement invariance in 36 countries and more than 58000 teachers, using the International Civic and Citizenship education Study (ICCS 2009). The Multiple-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used for this analysis. Teachers become part of a professional community when they agree on a common school visions, engage in reflective dialogues and collaborative practices, and feel responsible for school improvement and student learning. The study discusses the implications of having (or not having) an invariant measure of the concept for quantifying and comparing the teacher professional community practices in the different countries involved. We establish that the latent concept of professional community can be meaningfully discussed in 35 countries, excluding Liechtenstein. In addition, in 34 countries all the items that represent the five specific dimensions are strongly related to the latent concept of professional community, except for the reflective dialogue item in Switzerland. As regards scalar invariance, we identify many noninvariant intercepts in different countries, especially for items measuring the dimensions of the deprivatisation of practice and collaborative activity, allowing to compare the professional community mean practices in 23 countries only, within partial scalar invariance.