Session Information
32 SES 11, Understanding School Improvement From Different Perspectives - Reconstructive Qualitative Methods
Symposium
Contribution
The current discourse on strategies for school development is characterized in particular by taking into account context specific conditions of schools’ as wells as including data in systematic improvement processes. In German-speaking countries, available data on schools is mostly cross-sectional, aggregated and quantitative in its form. The suitability and usefulness of such data for the initiation of school development processes in schools has been problematized many times (e.g. Bremm et al. 2017). Reconstructive qualitative data (such as from group discussions, lesson observations, analysis of support plans etc.) which after is reconstruction can provide information on the ‘organizational frames of orientation’ (Bohnsack 2017) of a school (Amling 2017) as well as organizational tacit knowledge, could provide interesting new ways for the initiation of context specific school development processes but has not been used for that purpose in the German context so far. We assume that such data can be especially helpful by providing schools with information on tacit knowledge on e.g. their school culture (shared norms, values and belief structures) or patterns of communication. Including such information into guided recontextualization and sense making processes within schools could provide stakeholders in school development processes with new kinds of knowledge on how to initiate change in their schools. Following a design-based logic (see Bryk, 2015; Mintrop, 2016) reconstructive data could furthermore serve as a starting point for the negotiation, implementation, evaluation and adaptation of school improvement interventions. During this process qualitative data, and especially data that was evaluated using the ‘documentary method’ (see Bohnsack, 2017) could have the benefit of providing knowledge not only individual dimensions of school quality but also information on organizational factors as well as tacit knowledge. As part of a project, qualitative process data on school and teaching level was collected and reconstructed using documentary method (Bohnsack 2017) principles by a group of practical school development coaches. The present paper presents findings on specifics, potentials and challenges of the process of feedbacking data to schools’ stakeholders and the following negotiation of finding a strategy for designing and implementing school specific interventions for change. The focus is laid on the question of how the results of reconstructive school and classroom research can be communicated, negotiated, and recontextualized to benefit the implementation of school development processes.
References
Amling, S., Vogd, W. (2017): Dokumentarische Organisationsforschung. Opladen, Berlin, Toronto: Barbara Budrich Bremm, N., Eiden, S., Neumann, C., Webs, T., van Ackeren, I., & Holtappels, H. G. (2017). Evidenzbasierter Schulentwicklungsansatz für Schulen in herausfordernden Lagen. Zum Potenzial der Integration von praxisbezogener Forschung und Entwicklung am Beispiel des Projekts „Potenziale entwickeln – Schulen stärken. In V. Manitius & P. Dobbelstein (Eds.), Beiträge zur Schulentwicklung. Schulentwicklungsarbeit in herausfordernden Lagen (pp. 141–159). Münster, New York: Waxmann. Bohnsack, R. (2017): Praxeologische Wissenssoziologie. Leverkusen: UTB Mintrop, R. (2016). Design-based school improvement: A practical guide for education leaders. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Education Press. Racherbäumer, Kathrin. "Rekonstruktionen zu Bedeutung und Funktionen der Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung aus Sicht von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern an Schulen in sozial benachteiligter Lage." Schulentwicklungsarbeit in herausfordernden Lagen (2017): 123-139.
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