Multi-Agency Partnership: Collaborative Culture of Schooling

Author(s):

Natallia Yakavets

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

SES D 09, Paper Session

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-23

15:10-16:40

Room:

Sali 225 (NW 21), Aurora

Chair:

Hanna Toiviainen

Contribution

For several decades, educational researchers have been advocating the benefits of partnership between schools, families, and communities as a means of promoting student achievement (Cummings & Dyson, 2007; Epstein & Sanders, 1998; Davis & Johnson, 1996). Multi-agency partnership is one of the vectors in the current British government educational policy. Professionals from education, health, social services, youth organisations, community and voluntary organisations have to work together in partnerships to address the Every Child Matters agenda (DfES, 2004). This raises important questions about what forms of leadership “work” within multi-agency partnerships and how to create a collaborative culture of schooling.

This paper presents some selected findings from a study for a PhD. Through an interpretive-constructionist’s epistemological paradigm, the research project investigated leadership practices within a multi-agency context. The following research questions were developed to realise the purpose of the study:

What leadership practices have been developed within a multi-agency environment?
How does the presence/lack of trustimpact on leaders’ practices in a multi-agency partnership?
What leadership strategies can best promote and sustain a collaborative culture of schooling?

The study’s conceptual framework is based on Huxham and Vangen’s (2005) theory of collaborative advantage, and on the theoretical concept of social capital (Bourdieu, 1986; Coleman 1988; Putnam 2000). Relevant literature on multi-agency partnership, leadership, organisational culture and current educational policy in England is brought together and integrated to frame the research design and analysis.

Method

The project employed a qualitative case study approach. The semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 20 participants. Representatives from the following organisations were involved in the research: a nursery school; a Children’s Centre; a primary school; a secondary school located in a disadvantaged neighbourhood and another secondary school with a long history of providing extended services on the school campus. Furthermore, representatives from the following organisations were interviewed: the local authority, health, social services, community and voluntary organisations, community and safety partnership, the Parish Council. The data were gathered through observations of school staff meetings, schools cluster meetings and inter-agency meetings and supported by narrative inquiries, document analysis from schools, community and partner organisations. The advantage of using a qualitative case study approach was that it resulted in a rich and multilayered understanding of the perceptions of participants engaged in this effort.

Expected Outcomes

The results of this study indicated that multi-agency work has positive impacts in terms of improved access to services for children, their parents and wider community members, it also increased knowledge and understanding of other services and improved communication between agencies. On the other hand, negative impacts on professionals involved in multi-agency activities focused in particular on cultural differences in working practices and uncertainty regarding professional identities and roles. Leaders try to fit their leadership practices and approaches to meet the changing needs of their institutions. Therefore, a one-size leadership model which works in any multi-agency partnership would be unrealistic. The evidence from the study suggests a mixed model of leadership adopted within a multi-agency partnership with the following elements of leadership models: political, cross-boundary, distributed, facilitative, strategic, and democratic model. This paper aims to increase understanding about how to initiate multi-agency work through presenting examples of barriers and facilitators used by practitioners. It may provide useful knowledge for researchers and educators for building and sustaining leadership practices in a multi-agency context and creating a collaborative culture of schooling in England and other countries.

References

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In J. J.Karabel & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and ideology in education. New York: Oxford University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital. In J. G. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York, London: Greenwood Pres Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94(Supplement), 95-120. Departmen for Education and Skills. (2003). Every Child Matters. London: DfES. Dimmock, C., & Walker, A. (2005). Educational Leadership. Culture and Diversity. London: Sage Publication. Epstein, J. L. (2001). School, family, and community partnerships: Preparing educators and improving schools. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Epstein, J. L., Sanders, M. G., Simon, B. S., Salinas, K. C., Jarsorn, N. R., & Van Voorhis, F. L. (2002). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Huxham, C., & Vangen, S. (2005). Managing to Collaborate: The Theory and Practice of Collaborative Advantage. London ; New York: Routledge. Muijs, D. (2007). Leadership in full-service extended schools: communicating across cultures School Leadership and Management, 27(4), 347-362. National College for School Leadership. (2006). Collaborative Leadership in Extended Schools. Leading in a multi-agency environment (pp. 76): National College for School Leadership. Rubin, H. (2009). Collaborative leadership: Developing effective partnerships for communities and schools (2nd ed.): Thousands Oaks, CA:Corwin Press. Sanders, M. G. (2005). Building School-Community Partnerships: Collaboration for Student Success: Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Sanders, M. G., & Harvey, A. (2002). Beyond the school walls: A case study of principal leadership for school-community collaboration. Teachers College Record, 104(7), 1345-1368. Tschannen-Moran, M. (2009). Fostering Teacher Professionalism in Schools The Role of Leadership Orientation and Trust Eduational Administration Quarterly, 45(2), 217-247.

Author Information

Natallia Yakavets

The Open University

Faculty of Education and Language Studies

Milton Keynes

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