From Activation to Transformation: A Multi-Site Case Study of Digital Competence Development in Indonesian Non-Formal Teacher Professional Learning Communities

This study investigates how non-formal Teacher Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) sustain digital competence development across urban–industrial, semi-rural, and suburban contexts in Indonesia, addressing the limited process-explicit understanding of how voluntary PLCs generate sustained digital competence beyond episodic training models. Using an interpretive multi-site case study design, data were collected from 18 participants across three PLCs through semi-structured interviews, non-participant observations, and analysis of 47 artefacts, and analyzed using iterative coding and cross-case comparison to identify recurring mechanisms underpinning community-based digital upskilling. Findings demonstrate that PLC sustainability is not determined by structural arrangements alone, but by a recurring sequence of activation, artefact-mediated co-design, iterative reflection, role transformation, and diffusion. Across sites, digital upskilling was catalyzed by leadership-framed initiation, intensified through AI-supported workshops and collaborative artefact production, and stabilized through structured reflection routines that redistributed leadership roles over time. Participation trajectories shifted from peripheral observation to distributed facilitation, indicating professional identity consolidation and increased collective agency. The study proposes the Community-Based Digital Upskilling Cycle (CBDUC) as a process-explicit model that extends existing PLC frameworks by explicating mechanism-level processes through which collaborative participation becomes sustained professional practice in non-formal contexts. Theoretically, the study reframes PLCs as recurring mechanism systems rather than static organizational structures. Practically, it highlights the importance of protected collaboration time, artefact diffusion infrastructures, and supported coordinative roles in sustaining digital transformation within non-formal teacher networks, while offering implications for policy and design of scalable teacher professional learning systems in resource-variable settings.