Session Information
32 SES 04, Schools as Learning Organizations
Paper Session
Contribution
Organizational learning takes place when the knowledge of individuals becomes accessible to others and as such it allows conclusions to be drawn and learning processes that are assimilated in organizational structures (Argyris & Schőn, 1996). A school portrait is the declared written knowledge on the school whose publication, discussion, and dialogue about it can enable educators to learn from it and assimilate changes. On numerous occasions, in a study of schools a written report does not reach the field, and if it does, it is written in the main in words that the school has difficulty in drawing operational conclusions from it. In the present proposal, I shall discuss the ability of the school portrait that is returned to the educational field by the researcher, to constitute a platform for organizational learning.
Portraits are a unique type of case report (Eisner & Peshkin, 1990) characterized by a product written in narrative form which comes close to the informants’ experience. The well-known school portrait, The Good High School, was written by Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (1983, 1997), who contends that the aim of the portrait is to essentially perceive the school culture, the values on which its curriculum is based, and its institutional structure. The portrait enables presentation of a “thick description” of the school (Geertz, 1973) and consequently enables the researcher to obtain an entire holistic picture of the organization. In the course of the portrait writing process a phenomenon can be reflected by means of quotations and interpretations by the respondents coupled with the researchers’ understandings and conclusions, which are intended to highlight and contrast the self-evident in the eyes of the respondents with additional possible realities (Gordon et al., 2002). This is the condition for organizational learning, to reveal the hidden and render it visible, to transfer the knowledge from “theory in use” to “theory of action” in order for a meaningful learning process to take place (Argyris & Schőn, 1996).
Different types of portraits can advance different types of organizational learning: wide data collection at the researcher’s discretion in contrast with predefined data collection in accordance with the study’s goals; broad and general writing in contrast with focused and condensed writing around a specific subjects; diversity in the quantity and character of the sources on which the portrait is based varies from one to another; a portrait can be a final research product or an interim stage in a case study whose aim is to examine a specific issue and organize findings in the course of the study. In every case the subject in question is a portrait written methodically and based on multiple sources and informants (various types of interview, observations, document analysis, and so forth).
When the portrait is returned to the research field for a dialogue, it reinforces the “covenantal ethics” between researcher and field, whose main thrust is commitment to the professional community coupled with acknowledgment of the studied community and mutuality between researcher and respondents while seeking the contribution of the process to both parties (Brydon-Miller, 2009; May, 1980). As a consequence of this reinforcement of trust and the covenant, the portrait in the respondents’ hands can become a platform for organizational learning processes and advance them.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. A. (1996). Organisational learning II: Theory, method and practice. Brydon-Miller, M. (2009). Covenantal ethics and action research: Exploring a common foundation for social research. The handbook of social research ethics, 243-258. Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.). (2005). Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Eisner E.W. & Peshkin, A. (1990) Qualitative Inquiry in Education New York: Teachers College Press. Geertz, C. (1973). Thick description toward an interpretive theory of culture. In C. Geertz, The interpretation of cultures (pp. 3-32). New York: Basic Books. Gordon, D., Hoz, R., Levin-Rozalis M., Kanan, A., Shine, R., Bar-On, N., et al. (2002). The application of the extended school day law. Ben-Gurion University and Kaye College, supported by the Office of the Chief Scientist, The Ministry of Education, Israel. (Hebrew). Guba, E.G. & Lincoln, Y.S. (1998). Competing paradigms in social research. In N. K. Denzin & Y.S. Lincoln (Eds.), The landscape of qualitative research. (p. 195-220). London: Sage. Lightfoot, L.S. (1983). The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture. Basic Books, Inc. Lightfoot, S. (1997). The art and science of portraiture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. May, W.F. (1980). Doing ethics: The learning of ethical theories on fieldwork. Social Problems, 27(3), 358-370. Tubin, D., Farchi, T. & Benifla-Halali, A. (2012). Achievement improvement in High Schools - leadership practices, structure, and processes. A research report submitted to the Avney-Rosha Institute, Jerusalem. September, 67 pp. (Hebrew). Tubin, D., Farchi, T., Holtzman, E. & Mytless, T. (2014). The effects of school culture on teaching hours usage in the class. A research report submitted to the chief scientist, Ministry of education, Jerusalem, October 2014, 120 pp. (Hebrew). Yin, R.K. (1994). Case Study Research Design and Methods. London: Sage.
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