Session Information
32 SES 02, Organizational Learning in/by Schools
Paper Session
Contribution
The concept and goal of a better school is becoming a more relevant issue. The Good School Concept was created in 2013. It was discussed with various school communities and approved in 2015. However, a question arose – whether the concept of a good school, held by teachers, parents, and school leaders is adequate with relation to the actual Good School Concept, can it be used as an impetus for school change.
The issues surrounding the concept and development of a good school is sparsely researched when it comes to the Good School context in Lithuania. Several more extensive researches can be mentioned: V. Targamadzė (2016), V. Targamadzė, G. Žibėnienė, J. Česnulevičienė (2018), V. Targamadzė, G. Žibėnienė (2018). These works endeavour to reveal the concept of a good school as it is seen by informants, experts, and respondents.
The research is based on social constructivism as per A.Kukla (2000) every person creates their reality, the way we understand reality is unique and not its mirror image.
Thus, the aim of this article – reveal the concept of a good school as it is seen by informants, experts, and respondents and to clarify whether or not such concept would be suitable as an agent of change in schools.
Research object: Good school in terms of its concept.
Having in mind that “The purpose of the concept is to be a universal guidance for contemporary school development that would indicate, which properties of a school are deemed valuable and desirable within the country, to encourage the creativity of schools and communities, as well as long-term development initiatives for various school types. It is created for all interest groups: pupils, teachers, parents. School leaders, and institutions that execute the rights and duties of a school owner, school owners, education management subjects and the community.” (Concept of a good school, 2015,1), it seems possible for this to become an agent for creating a good school that would stimulate changes in a school towards education results. Such schools aim to achieve a different education result than the one accepted currently. That is to say, education should be concerned with academic achievement only, but also the pupil’s maturity and development. Moreover, education results are only one side of the scale while the opposite is occupied by school life (school experience). Meanwhile, a good school is defined as “A school, which bases the education process on fundamental humanistic values, aims for sense, discovery and personal (self)education, and executes its activities according to learning and agreements within the school community. This definition of a good school outlines the main values of the concept and describes the direction for improving the school’s activities.” (Concept of a good school, 2015,2).
It is worth mentioning that this concept should be used as a basis and guidance for improving school’s activities. It resembles a map that should aid in travelling towards a better, higher-quality school. Every school has to create its own navigational system with clearly placed landmarks. “The school is provided an opportunity to independently choose which aspects of its activity should be improve first, i.e. pave the road towards school improvement, based on self-reflection and the needs and agreement of the school’s community.“ (Concept of a good school, 2015,3). Nevertheless, there is a concern, whether or not good schools will be adequate in relation to the one described in the concept, as wrongly assessing the concept itself is sure to lead towards the school not being created at all. Also heed worthy is the concept’s recognition as a proper guide for school change.
Method
Empirical research was conducted in 2016 and 2018. Methodological provisions social constructivism (Kukla A., 2000). The aim of the qualitative research conducted in the first two months of 2016 was to highlight the opportunity for a general education school to become a good school. Research object: The concept of a good school and its implementation based on expert opinion. Method: a written survey of experts. 10 experts were chosen: one from each of the two parent organisations in Lithuania, two representatives of the institutions implementing education policies on a national level, two representatives from national general education schools and two representatives each from general education schools where the language of instruction is Lithuanian and Catholic schools. Experts were asked to provide their opinion on 12 questions related to the Good School concept and its implementation, as well as expressing any other views. The aim for the 2018 research: is to reveal how the development of a general education school is perceived within the context of a Good School concept in relation to the target groups and to identify the field of content for the concept of progress of a general education school. Research object: the understanding of a school’s progress by the community of a general education school, while oriented towards the Good School Concept. The research consists of three main stages, with a different methodology being applied in each one. The first stage included a qualitative research (interview), the second was quantitative (questionnaire survey), and a focus group was used in the third part. All three stages were based on the same research logic. The 2018 empirical research was conducted by a group of researchers (Targamadzė V., Žibėnienė G., Česnavičienė J., 2018), headed by the author. Nine informants were selected for the first stage based on criteria, respondents completed sample volume calculations based on the Paniotto formula (Паниотто, Максименко, 2003, p. 170). It was determined that with a probability of 95 percent and the margin for error being 5 percent a suitable sample size would be: for teachers and school administration representatives – 281, 7–12 grade pupils – 369. A test research was also conducted involving 171 parents. For the focus group of the third stage, 8 national-level experts were selected based on criteria. The overall construct of the entire research was based on the understanding of a good school and its traits, as indicated in the literature review.
Expected Outcomes
The results of the 2016 research showed that: - The Good School concept is understood and accepted by all experts – the understanding of a good school is revealed with several particular keywords; its mission scope correlates with the essence of the concept and the definition of the concept’s field of meaning/content. - Experts envision several potential obstacles for the implementation of the Good School Concept: foundation of education, (educational philosophy, the ideological basis for defining the purpose of a school), unsuitability of documents regulating education activities, teacher and leader preparation, teacher training, training and re-training courses. However, no clear presumable solutions for these obstacles to the implementation of the Good School concept were offered. The results of the 2018 research allow to conclude that: Based on the data of the qualitative research, according to the opinion of school administrations, teachers, pupils, and their parents, the understanding of a good school matches almost all the key traits indicated in the Good School Concept (2015). Yet teachers, pupils and their parents do not associate good school with one of its traits: the local community and the institution executing the duties and rights of a school’s owner; this trait was not deemed particularly important by the participants of the quantitative research either. The latter revealed that personal growth of every pupil was deemed as the most important trait of a good school by almost a quarter of the teachers and a sixth of the pupils, while a sixth of the parents considered it an important trait; self-expressive involvement of the pupils was considered by almost a sixth of the pupils and a fifth of the parents as the most important trait and a fifth of the teachers described it as more important.
References
Kukla, A. (2000). Social Constructivism and the Philosophy of Science. New York: Routledge. Lithuanian Ministry of education and science.(2015). Concept of a good school. Accessed from: https://www.smm.lt/uploads/documents/Pedagogams/Geros%20mokyklos%20koncepcija.pdf Паниотто, В. И., Максименко, В. С. (2003). Количественные методы в социологических исследованиях. Accessed from: http://socioline.ru/pages/vipaniotto-vsmaksimenko-kolichestvennye-metody-v-sotsiologicheskih Targamadze, V.(2016).A Good Comprehensive School: Mimicry or Metamorphosis? Social Education 2016, t. 42, Nr. 1, p. 6–16 / Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 6–16, 2016. Accessed from: http://socialinisugdymas.leu.lt/index.php/socialinisugdymas/article/view/154/142 Targamadzė, V., Žibėnienė, G., Česnavičienė, J. (2018). The Concept of Progress in the School of General Education Community Orientation to the Good School Concept (Report).Vilnius: National Agency for School Evaluation.
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