A Socio-scientific Discourse Analysis on Educational Policy and Research Concerning Inter-professional Collaboration – The German Situation in a European Context

Author(s):

Anna Moldenhauer(presenting / submitting)Melanie Fabel-Lamla(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 06 A, Models of Collaborative Practice

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-23

15:30-17:00

Room:

K3.17

Chair:

Hannu L. T. Heikkinen

Contribution

At the beginning of the millennium the disillusioning results of PISA 2000 were followed by a wide debate on necessary changes in the German school system. One of the implications of this debate was a nationwide all-day school movement (cf. Tillmann/Rollett 2012). According to the German Conference of Ministers of Educational and Cultural Affairs (KMK) all-day schools are defined by linking regular lessons and extracurricular activities conceptually in everyday life at school (at minimum three days a week) (cf. KMK 2013). As a result of this focus, collaboration between teaching staff and additional educational staff became commonplace in educational policy and research concerning school improvement and professional learning. Policy makers and educational scientists agree that collaboration should be regarded as a key pre-requisite for transforming schools and teaching practices (cf. Tillmann/Rollett 2012).

Recently, due to changes in the general school system following the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009 and the endeavour of promoting inclusive education, the discussion on inter-professional collaboration was resumed. Inter-professional collaboration is assumed to be effective for constant development and a solution to various problems (e.g. reduction of inequality, democratisation, improved student success, managing diversity, support of children and youth). Neither educational policy nor educational research ever questioned inter-professional collaboration as an impetus for change and as a key concept for developing schools towards a better way of dealing with diversity. However, inter-professional collaboration never really proved to meet the high (and hardly accomplishable) expectations. Research shows that amongst other things there are obstructive organisational conditions which do not provide time for collaboration. Furthermore, there is a lack of understanding of what is exactly going on in inter-professional collaboration and how that contributes to change and development of competence and quality in teaching and schools. Many social problems remain outside the scope of teacher agency and improvement efforts – even within inter-professional collaboration (cf. Servage 2008).

In our paper we investigate the role of educational research as well as that of educational policy concerning inter-professional collaboration. We analyse how the German discourse (re)produces the idea of inter-professional collaboration as a means of professional learning and organisational development. As a theoretical framework we make reference to Helsper’s approach to professional development (e.g. Helsper 2014) as well as to educational governance theory (e.g. Dietrich in press). We notice an increasing demand for reflection for professional development that contributes to high expectations on inter-professional collaboration and we refer to types of coordination of action to explain our findings.

Method

The study is based on a socio-scientific discourse analysis on inter-professional collaboration in the German school system. The methodology of this kind of discourse analysis is derived from Keller (cf. 2005). He assumes that experiences are communicated via knowledge that is accepted as legitimate. This kind of knowledge is produced, reproduced and transformed in discourses. According to Keller “discourses are considered as ‘structured and structuring structures’ which shape social practices of enunciation” (Keller 2005, 1). With regard to discourse on inter-professional collaboration the question arises what is presumed to be legitimate? Which kind of knowledge is (re)produced in discourse on inter-professional collaboration? How is the discourse structured? What is the story line concerning inter-professional collaboration in Germany? How does that relate to the European context? As a result of these questions, our analysis concentrates on interpretative schemes, classifications and the narrative structure of discourse on inter-professional collaboration. The paper focuses on forms of discourse in Germany including different stakeholders that are powerful speakers either because they are policy makers or because they enjoy a high reputation for their work and influence discourse as well as social practice of enunciation. We include educational policy (e.g. represented by the German Conference of Ministers of Educational and Cultural Affairs - KMK and the German Rectors’ conference – HRK, i.a. KMK & HRK 2015), educational administration (e.g. framework for quality in schools i.a. Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium 2014) and educational research on school reform (e.g. STeG – i.a. Tillmann/Rollett 2012) as well as research on professional development from different perspectives (e.g. Lütje-Klose/Urban 2014, Urban/Lütje-Klose 2014, Speck/Olk/Stimpel 2011). Hence, the corpus comprises political references and research articles of the last 15 years which will be selected in a process of theoretical sampling (cf. Strauss 1998).

Expected Outcomes

Within the discourse in Germany most emphasis is put on favourable outcomes of inter-professional collaboration, thereby largely neglecting the challenges implied. In our paper we analyse this kind of discourse as structured and structuring structure and discuss possible reasons. One of the reasons we take into consideration is that implementing inter-professional collaboration is assumed to be self-financing and supposedly possible to realise without larger systemic transformation. Due to the possible combination of expertise, inter-professional collaboration seems to dissolve boundaries of educational practice and increase expectations on solving a wide range of problems. The discourse on inter-professional collaboration thus nourishes wishful thinking, and at the same time trivialises mediation processes as well as organisational development. Since inter-professional collaboration was not common in Germany before PISA 2000 and a high level of job specialisation was favoured instead, the discourse (both in policy and in research) is susceptible to such an idea of transformational collaboration. Another possible reason why the favourable impact of inter-professional collaboration is emphasised is the fact that collaboration is generally regarded as desirable. Discourse on inter-professional collaboration is in line with the idea of professional learning communities and with the debate on inclusive education in Germany (cf. Boban/Hinz 2003, Lütje-Klose/Urban 2014, Urban/Lütje-Klose 2014) that both highlight collaborative action. However, instead of empirically substantiating how and under which circumstances collaboration contributes to school improvement, professional development (e.g. as situated in communities of practice) and inclusion, the idea of collaboration as a goal in itself is reinforced in discourse. On the basis of our discourse analysis of inter-professional collaboration we shall point out research desiderata and argue for scrutiny.

References

Boban, Ines/Hinz, Andreas (2003): Index für Inklusion – Lernen und Teilhabe in der Schule der Vielfalt entwickeln. Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Accessible: http://www.eenet.org.uk/resources/docs/Index%20German.pdf [07.01.2017]. [Orig.: Booth, Tony/Ainscow, Mel (2002): Index for Inclusion. CSIE]. Dietrich, Fabian (in press): Konturen einer rekonstruktiven Governanceforschung. In: Heinrich, Martin/Wernet, Andreas (Hrsg.): Rekonstruktive Bildungsforschung – Zugänge und Methoden. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. Helsper, Werner (2014): Lehrerprofessionalität – Der strukturtheoretische Ansatz zum Lehrerberuf. In: Terhart, Ewald/Bennewitz, Hedda/Rothland, Martin (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Forschung zum Lehrerberuf. Münster. pp. 149-170. Keller, Reiner (2005): Analysing Discourse. An Approach From the Sociology of Knowledge. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 6 (3), Art. 32. Accessible: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/viewArticle/19/41 [28.12.2016]. KMK – Sekratariat der Ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (2013): Allgemeinbildende Schulen in Ganztagsform in den Ländern in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland - Statistik 2007 bis 2011. Berlin. Accessible: http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/pdf/Statistik/GTS_2011_Bericht.pdf [28.12.2016]. KMK & HRK (2015): Lehrerbildung für eine Schule der Vielfalt. Gemeinsame Empfehlung von Hochschulrektorenkonferenz und Kultusministerkonferenz. Accessible: http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/Dateien/veroeffentlichungen_beschluesse/2015/2015_03_12-Schule-der-Vielfalt.pdf [28.12.2016]. Lütje-Klose, Birgit/Urban, Melanie (2014): Professionelle Kooperation als wesentliche Bedingung inklusiver Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung. Teil 1. In: Vierteljahrsschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete VHN, issue 2, volume 83, pp. 111-123 Niedersächsisches Kultusministerium (2014): Orientierungsrahmen Schulqualität in Nidersachsen. Hannover. Accessible: http://www.mk.niedersachsen.de/schule/schulqualitaet/orientierungsrahmen/orientierungsrahmen---basis-fuer-schulqualitaet-in-niedersachsen-6339.html [28.12.2016]. Servage, Laura (2008): Critical and Transformative Practices in Professional Learning Communities. In: Teacher Education Quarterly, Winter 2008. pp. 63-77. Accessible: http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ810651.pdf [28.12.2016]. Speck, Karsten/Olk, Thomas/Stimpel, Thomas (2011): Auf dem Weg zu multiprofessionellen Organisationen? Die Kooperation von Sozialpädagogen und Lehrkräften im schulischen Ganztag. In: Helsper, Werner/Tippelt, Rudolf (Hrsg.): Pädagogische Professionalität. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, volume 57, supplement 57, pp. 184-201. Strauss, Anselm (1998): Grundlagen qualitativer Sozialforschung. München: Fink (UTB). [Orig.: Qualitative Analysis for Social Scientists. Cambridge 1987]. Tillmann, Katja/Rollett, Wolfram (2012): Does participation matter? The impact of participation on multi-professional cooperation in German all-day schools. Accessible: www.icsei.net/fileadmin/ICSEI/icsei_2012/papers/1792755_Multi-professional_Co-operation_and_Participation_Tillmann_Rollett.pdf [28.12.2016]. Urban, Melanie/Lütje-Klose, Birgit (2014): Kooperation als wesentliche Bedingung inklusiver Schul- und Unterrichtsentwicklung. Teil 2. In: Vierteljahresschrift für Heilpädagogik und ihre Nachbargebiete VHN, issue 4, volume 83, pp. 283–294.

Author Information

Anna Moldenhauer (presenting / submitting)

Osnabrück University

Education

Osnabrück

Melanie Fabel-Lamla (presenting)

University of Hildesheim

Faculty 1: Educational and Social Sciences

Hildesheim

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