Main Content
Session Information
01 SES 05 C, Teachers' professional learning in school networks
Paper Session
Contribution
This proposal focuses on the study of knowledge mobilisation in educational organizations, within the framework of the new modes of regulation in educational systems and the use of regulatory instruments in public action.
The redistribution of responsibilities at national, regional and local levels changed regulation processes in educational systems. Public action is now characterized by a complex regulation system promoted by different levels and actors, and new kinds of regulation emerge. School networks constitute a form of voluntary regulation of collaborative nature (Justino & Batista, 2014), as it derives from organizations or actors own will. Their joint action guides, conditions or influences the allocation and management of resources and the goals or results of educational action.
According to Pons and Van Zanten (2007), changes in regulation processes are associated with the development of knowledge-based regulatory instruments. It is possible to assume that school networks can constitute new spaces for the creation and dissemination of those instruments.
Our main theoretical question resides then in the role of knowledge for school organizations improvement, in the context of new modes of regulation in educational systems. More specifically, we are concerned about the mobilisation of knowledge-based instruments produced and disseminated within school networks to inform collective action in school organizations, namely to contextualize changes or make decisions (Choo, 2003).
In order to explore these issues, a study is being conducted in a Portuguese school network: ESCXEL Project – School Network for Excellence. This network is based on a partnership between public schools of eight Portuguese municipalities, their local authorities, and CICS.NOVA, an interdisciplinary research centre. The main goal of the project is the continuing endeavour to improve quality and performance of ESCXEL schools.
Two main axes of ESCXEL activities identified in a recent presentation (Batista, Gonçalves & Santos, 2014) are directly related to the issues previously discussed: benchmarking and collaborative learning. The benchmark of schools and municipalities results in national exams is the most consolidated network tool, in the form of indicators and reports. Other reports include monitoring students and classes’ progress within a pilot project on strategies of grouping pupils according to their performance profile in main subjects. As for collaborative learning, ESCXEL network organizes “good practices” seminars and professional training courses, events where teachers can discuss common problems and possible solutions or learn how to use research instruments to build and improve their self-assessment strategies.
Our collaboration in this Project will allow us to explore two sets of research questions. On the one hand, those related to the characterization of knowledge instruments within the school network. How are they produced and disseminated? What is their nature? In what extend do they constitute regulatory instruments? How are they seen by school actors? Do they respond to school actors needs?
On the other hand, questions to assess the use and effects of these instruments in school organizations. As stated by Bennet and Bennet (2007), knowledge mobilisation is a connection between knowledge produced by researches and social value that it can bring to organizations like schools. Knowledge produced and disseminated by researchers is important to stimulate a reflexive approach by teachers upon their educational practices, moreover if the new knowledge produced locally is based in a professional learning community, where it is shared and helps to elaborate collective know-how in order to improve students’ performance (Normand & Derouet, 2011). In this sense, we question: Do schools mobilize knowledge instruments produced by researchers? For what purposes and how do they use them? What are the effects of the mobilisation of knowledge instruments on educational practices and school results?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Batista, S., Gonçalves, E., & Santos, R. (2014). ESCXEL Project – School Network for Excellence, Communication Presented in the First ESCXEL Project International Conference Networks, Communities and Partnerships in Education: actors, goals and results, 27-29 de November, Lisbon. Bennet, Alex and David Bennet (2007). Knowledge mobilization in the social sciences and humanities. Moving from research to action. West Virginia: MQI Press, Knowledge Series. Choo, C.W. (2003) A organização do conhecimento: como as organizações usam a informação para criar significado, construir conhecimento e tomar decisões. São Paulo: Senac. Cooper, A., Levin, B., & Campbell, C. (2009). The growing (but still limited) importance of evidence in education policy and practice. In Journal of Educational Change, 10(2-3), pp. 159-171. Delvaux, Bernard (2007). Knowledge and Learning in the literature on Organizations. Research Report, Know&Pol Project. Justino, David and Susana Batista (2013). Redes de escolas e modos de regulação do sistema educativo. Educação, Temas e Problemas. A escola em análise: olhares sociopolíticos e organizacionais, 6 (12-13): 41-60. Khan, S. and VanWynsberghe, R. (2008). Cultivating the Under-Mined: Cross-Case Analysis as Knowledge Mobilization. Forum Qualitative Social Research, 9 (1). Normand, Romuald and Jean-Louis Derouet (2011). Évaluation, développement professionnel et organisation scolaire, Revue Française de Pédagogie, 174, 5-20. URL: http://rfp.revues.org/2899 Pons, Xavier and Agnès Van Zanten (2007). Knowledge circulation, regulation and governance. Research Report, Know&Pol Project. Stake, R. (2006). Multiple Case study analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press. Torres, L. L. (2011). A construção da autonomia num contexto de dependências. Limitações e possibilidades nos processos de (in)decisão na escolar. In Educação, Sociedade e Culturas, 32, pp. 91-109. Yin, Robert K. (2009), Case Study Research. Design and Methods, California: Sage Publications, Applied Social Research Methods Series, Vol. 5.
Programme by Network 2019
00. Central Events (Keynotes, EERA-Panel, EERJ Round Table, Invited Sessions)
Network 1. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations
Network 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Network 3. Curriculum Innovation
Network 4. Inclusive Education
Network 5. Children and Youth at Risk and Urban Education
Network 6. Open Learning: Media, Environments and Cultures
Network 7. Social Justice and Intercultural Education
Network 8. Research on Health Education
Network 9. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Network 10. Teacher Education Research
Network 11. Educational Effectiveness and Quality Assurance
Network 12. LISnet - Library and Information Science Network
Network 13. Philosophy of Education
Network 14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research
Network 15. Research Partnerships in Education
Network 16. ICT in Education and Training
Network 17. Histories of Education
Network 18. Research in Sport Pedagogy
Network 19. Ethnography
Network 20. Research in Innovative Intercultural Learning Environments
Network 22. Research in Higher Education
Network 23. Policy Studies and Politics of Education
Network 24. Mathematics Education Research
Network 25. Research on Children's Rights in Education
Network 26. Educational Leadership
Network 27. Didactics – Learning and Teaching
Network 28. Sociologies of Education
Network 29. Reserach on Arts Education
Network 30. Research on Environmental und Sustainability Education
Network 31. Research on Language and Education (LEd)
Network 32. Organizational Education
The programme is updated regularly (each day in the morning)
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