Background 

Researchers have long recognized that the professional development of teachers is essential to change classroom practice, schools, and ultimately the learning outcomes of pupils (Borko, 2004). This perspective on professional learning emphasizes the school as the most important learning environment (Vescio et al., 2008). The ongoing developmental work research study that this presentation is a part of, is conducted within the frame of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT).  Based on Vygotsky’s theory of learning and development of the individual (Wertsch, 1981), CHAT was developed by Leontèv (1978, 1981) and emphasizes development and learning in social settings. Leontèv (1981) stated that ‘the object is the true motive’ (p.59), meaning that a collective motive is embedded in the object of the work. In school, teachers can collectively develop their practice towards a joint object.  Based on this, the research question of our presentation is as follows:  "How can the start-up phase of a Developmental Work Research (DWR) project, emphasizing the development of a joint object, serve as a foundation and motivation for further school development?”.

Objective 

The paper takes part of the ongoing research project (2023-2027) Leadership and Learning for the Development of Teachers’ Professional Digital Competence (LeadDig), funded by the Norwegian Research Council. The underlying idea for the project is to develop schools that learn by focusing on teachers’ professional digital competence to enhance the pupils’ learning environment and learning in all together six schools. The paper presents findings from the start-up phase at the three schools that participated during the two first years (2023-2025) of the project: the core school (grade 1-7, year 1), school 2 (grade 1-10, year 2), and school 3 (grade 8-10, year 2).

The concept of expansive learning is central in CHAT and is related to creative processes, indicating that teachers in a collective community can see possibilities and create something new ‘that is not yet there’ (Engeström & Sannino 2010, p. 2). Based on this, the development work in the start-up phase of three participating schools, was structured by following a step-by-step process. Throughout this initial phase, researchers used Engeström's expansive learning cycle (2001) as a guide, with particular emphasis on stage 2 to anchor the processes at each of the schools.  

Thus, the teachers at the schools got the opportunity to identify what they really wanted to focus on in their development work to enhance their professional digital competence. First each individual teacher should observe their own teaching to be aware of their own practice focusing on the use of digital tools to recognize areas of challenge in their teaching. Then each teacher should present for the other teachers their need for development, and next together agree on an object to act on in the whole collegium. The teachers at the core school ended up by the following joint object by the end of their first semester: How can leadership-supported teacher collaboration contribute to learning through the use of digital tools. The next two schools chose to reuse this object. Each of the teacher-teams at each school concretized this object by developing a development question in line with their perceived and local needs. With the object and associated development question to act on, the teachers were in their initialization phase of the development of a new practice. The teachers should also collaborate by observing each other’s teaching and analyzing it afterwards to find out if they were on their track towards the object.  

The project utilizes a qualitative research design, based on a multiple-case study as an approach. Hence, the start-up phase as a phenomena is explored in real-life, in contemporary bounded systems over time (Creswell, 1998). The purpose of the study is to understand how the start-up phase, focusing on developing a joint object, can influence the teachers’ motivation and become a foundation for development in the school. The sample schools participating in the LeadDig-project, is public schools located in one municipality in mid-Norway. The empirical material presented consists of focus-group interviews, observations and logbook entries obtained during the start-up phase at three schools. The collection of data is work in progress. To gain insights into the teachers experiences during the initial phase, teachers at all schools were and will be interviewed in focus groups (Chrzanowska, 2002) using a semistructured interview- guide. The groups were/will be interviewed twice, in January and June, approximately

The preliminary findings indicates that the following prerequisites must be addressed for the start-up phase to serve as a foundation and motivation for further school development: 1) OWNERSHIP: The teachers expressed that they must experience ownership to both the process, the joint object and the development question: “I felt it became much safer when we revised our developmental question to something that we felt more ownership to”. 2) NEEDS: The teachers underlined that the joint object and the developmental question must be embedded in their perceived needs: “… the motivation has increased considerably (...) now I know that it is useful. Now I know that we can really use this, and not the least that we can develop our practice further.” 3) RESISTANCE: We observed varying degrees of resistance to development work at the different schools, and that it was important to meet this resistance to arrive at a development issue that all teachers could agree on. 4) TIME: The findings shows that it takes at least

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