Session Information
01 SES 01 A, Research on Mentoring (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 01 SES 02 B
Contribution
As educational systems around the world continue to seek new approaches to tackle educational inequities and to promote social justice, the role of the university as a 'civic partner' to the communities they serve has become an interesting and potentially important driver for social change and knowledge generation.
In part this has led to the increased interest in developing 'Research Practice Partnerships' (RPPs) between resesarchers and professionals and other stakeholders. Albeit diverse in nature, RPPs have often focused on generating knowledge (for the academy) and improving professional practice (to generate social change). This type of activity is gaining significant interest across many educational systems around the globe including in European countries.
Within the education sector, it is becomming increasingly recognised that school networks and collaboration can play an important role to support the development of practices that promote systemic improvement in schools and education systems (Ainscow et al., 2012; Chapman and Hadfield, 2010; Stoll et al., 2006). Furthermore, in the context of SARS COVID-19, it has been argued that school networks are a relevant strategy to support schools facing multiple challenging circumstances to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic (Azorín, 2020; Chapman and Bell, 2020). Increasingly public educational systems are tending to mandate and promote the development of networked practices among schools, in both competitive and more collabortive contexts across different systems (Pino-Yancovic et al., 2020).
This paper draws on two cases, one from Scotland and the other from Chile. Each case involves school-school networks to support professional learning, build leadership capacity and impact on student achievement in challenging school contexts.
The objective of this paper is to draw on the two cases as diverse examples of RPP school-to-school networks to illuminate the possibilities and pitfalls of university initiated partnerships to initiate and sustain school-to-school improvement networks in contrasting cultural and policy contexts. In doing so, the the paper will unpack the complex intersection between key considerations of leadership, trust and relationships, power, autonomy and collective agency within and across professional boundaries and organisational settings. The overarching research questions that frame the argument are:
- what lessons can be learned from university-initiated RPPs between university and school-based staff?
and
- what do RPPs look like in centralised higher trust settings and in decentralised lower trust settings?
Socio-cultural theory (Douglas, 1982) applied to public service organisations (Hood, 1998) suggests that the Chilean system is primarily characterised by an individualised culture where market-based organisations tend to dominate the educational landscape. Conversely in Scotland hierarchical culture and bureaucratic organisations are viewed as the primary characteristics.
The two cases also have contrasting policy narratives. The Chilean context has a history of a miltary dictatorship in the Pinochet era. Bachelet's two terms of government shifted the political narrative and introduced policies designed to promote collaboration and networks. More recently, government shifted back to a stronger neoliberal agenda until the election of the most recent government that has attempted to introduce a new consitution with education and principles associated with social justice at its core. In Scotland the establishment of a Scottish Perliament throgh the Scotland Act in 1988 signalled further devolution of powers to Scotland to fall behind the Scottish education system.
The Scottish approach to education, and indeed public and social policy has continued to promote universal provision, collaboration and partnership working as key planks of policy policy. In many ways the two systems could not be more different. This is what makes them such interesting cases to explore.
These contrasting positions and their associated policy discourses have significant implications for the development of RPPs and collaborative/networked approaches in diverse systems, not least across Europe.
Method
This research adopted a case study approach (Yin, 1992). The methodology underpinning this paper is based on a range of data sources. These include mixed methods evaluations and research papers from Scotland (c.f Chapman and Donaldson, 2023; Chapman and Ainscow, 2022; Bell et al., 2022). Annual surveys of school leaders and key stakeholders undertaken across eight school districts responsible for the education of 33% of all of Scotland's children, combined with semi-structured interviews and focus groups triangulated with documentary evidence, observations and field notes (see Bell et al., 2022 for details) form the evidential base for the analysis and subsequent claims made. From a Chilean perspective a range of data were collected via surveys and interviews. Data from a survey validated in Chile (Pino-Yancovic et al., 2020) applied with 412 participants (headteachers and teachers) from 59 networks of 6 Local Services of Public Education. These were followed up with semi-structured interviews with key personnel in the networks. The two cases were then subjected to an analysis to identify key patterns, themes and trends within and across the two cases that illuminated key similarities, differences, issues, tensions and dilemmas between the cases.
Expected Outcomes
Analysis of the cases highlights the importance of: For building successful university -initiated RPPs between university and school staff: 1. Building leadership capacity at all levels 2. a focus on learning and teaching and commitment to improving education for children and young people 3. the importance of negotiating with local and middle tier actors 4. Mitigating the influence of national policy mandates 5. Securing buy-in from all partners 6. Planning for sustainability Analysis relating to the second research question remains on-going. However, emerging findings suggest that in addition to an enhanced focus on relational trust (still remains problematic). For example, in the Chilean context the findings of this research show that participants highlighted that the main activities of the networks are related to a significant role of the facilitators of the networks and networks members to present and debate about educational practices. Nevertheless, networks still face trust issues among their members, as 37.7% of its members’ state that never or almost never describe their failures or practices that have not worked. Finally, the majority of the networks have been useful for its member to address educational challenges of their students (82.7%). The two cases also have contrasting policy narratives. The Scottish approach to education, and indeed public and social policy has continued to promote universal provision, collaboration and partnership working as key planks of policy policy whilst in Chile the system is in a constant fight to mitigate the forces of neoliberalism. In many ways the two systems could not be more different. This is what makes them such interesting cases. These contrasting positions and their associated policy discourses have significant implications for the development of RPPs and collaborative/networked approaches in diverse systems, not least across Europe.
References
Ainscow, M., Dyson, A., Goldrick, A. and West, M. (2016). Using Collaborative Inquiry to Foster Equity Within School Systems: Opportunities and Barriers. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 27 (1), 7–23. doi:10.1080/09243453.2014.939591. Azorín, C., Harris, A., and Jones, M. (2020). Taking a Distributed Perspective on Leading Professional Learning Networks. School Leadership and Management, 40 (2-3), 111–127 DOI:10.1080/13632434.2019.1647418. Bell, I et al., (2022). Evaluation Report to the WEST Partnership. Glasgow: University of Glasgow/WEST Partnership Chapman and Donaldson (2023). Where Next for Scottish Education: Learning Scotland's Future? Unpublished working paper. Chapman, C. and Ainscow, M. (2022). Educational Equity: Pathways to success, Abingdon/New York: Routledge Chapman, C., & Hadfield, M. (2010). Realising the potential of school-based networks. Educational research, 52(3), 309-323. Chapman, C. and Bell, I. (2020). Building back better education systems: equity and COVID-19. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 5 (3/4), 227-236. DOI: 10.1108/JPCC-07-2020-0055 Douglas, M. (1982). In the active voice. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. Hood, C. (1998). The Art of The State, Culture rhetoric and public management. Oxford: Clarenden Press. Pino-Yancovic, M., Gonzalez Parrao, C., Ahumada, L., & Gonzalez, A. (2020). Promoting collaboration in a competitive context: School improvement networks in Chile. Journal of Educational Administration, 58(2), 208-226. Pino-Yancovic, M. and Ahumada, L. (2020). Collaborative inquiry networks: the challenge to promote network leadership capacities in Chile. School Leadership and Management, 40(2/3), 221-241. DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2020.1716325 Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature Yin, R. (1992). Case Study Research: Design and methods, Thousand Oaks: CA
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