Transforming teacher professional identity through interactive digital communities of practice: insights from language teachers in Indonesia

Interactive digital professional learning has become increasingly important in supporting teachers’ continuous professional development; however, relatively little is known about how participation in digital communities of practice contributes to professional identity development within language-specific teaching contexts. This qualitative case study explored how participation in an interactive digital professional learning community contributed to the professional identity development of 25 Arabic language teachers working in Indonesian Madrasah Tsanawiyah (MTs). Data were collected over four months through semi-structured interviews, Google Classroom discussion archives, WhatsApp interaction records, online observations, and researcher field notes, and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings identified four interconnected processes: professional belonging, collaborative reflection and pedagogical transformation, professional role repositioning, and teacher agency. These processes developed through sustained collaborative participation, reflective dialogue, peer recognition, and engagement with shared professional practice, rather than through technology use alone. The findings suggest that digital communities become consequential for professional identity development when teachers can engage with shared pedagogical concerns, contribute professional knowledge, and translate collaborative learning into professional action. The study contributes to research on interactive learning environments by providing a contextually grounded account of the participatory processes connecting digital professional learning with teacher professional identity development in a language-specific community.