| 1. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, Fil doktor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Evaluating teacher and school development by learning capital : a conceptual contribution to a fundamental problem
- 2019
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : Sage Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 22:2, s. 130-143
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In light of an international policy movement to increase focus on students’ academic achievement, the question of how to improve schools has become an important issue at all levels in the school system. Substantial resources have been invested in reforms to improve conditions for pupils’ learning. Great expectations and responsibility are often placed on teachers in terms of their professional development (PD), the aim being to improve their teaching practices. Consequently, the question of how to evaluate the results of school improvement programmes, including teachers’ PD, has arisen. However, there is a lack of theoretical concepts that can capture the outcomes of such development in a qualified way. Taking inspiration from the research on teachers’ PD and theories relating to teachers’ knowledge and capabilities, the aim of this study is to outline a conceptual framework that can serve as an analytical tool when evaluating both school improvement initiatives in general and school actors’ learning in particular. Four types of learning capital that are intended to reflect the central aspects of teachers’ and school organisations’ learning and the capabilities linked to teaching practice and its development are outlined. This conceptual framework is applied and exemplified based on the results of a three-year research project evaluating a school improvement programme in a Swedish municipality. Finally, some conclusions are drawn regarding the different types of analysis possible with the current conceptual framework related to the evaluation of school improvement efforts.
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| 2. |
- Adolfsson, Carl-Henrik, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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The nested systems of local school development : Understanding improved interaction and capacities in the different sub-systems of schools
- 2017
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : Sage Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 20:3, s. 195-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In school systems around the world, there is an increasing focus on students’ academic achievement. The challenge of how to improve schools is an important issue for all levels in the school system. However, a central question of both practical and theoretical relevance is how it is possible to understand why (or why not) school-development efforts are successful. The purpose of this article is to explore the ecology of local school development through the case of a medium-sized municipality in Sweden, based on empirical data from two follow-up research projects. The analytical framework draws from organisational theory and new institutional theory, where focus is directed towards how different sub-systems of the school organisation interact with and respond to aspects of development work and the implications for outcomes of school-development initiatives. Findings show that great investment of resources from the central level in the local school organisation necessarily does not lead to changes in teaching practice. School-development initiatives are unlikely to be successful unless they engage and re-couple the involved sub-systems. Finally, we discuss how the introduction of Expert Teachers as a new sub-system has the ability to work as a link between other sub-systems and to promote school development.
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| 3. |
- Bergmark, Ulrika, et al.
(författare)
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Listen to me when I have something to say : students paricipation in research for sustainable school improvement
- 2009
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : SAGE Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 12:3, s. 249-260
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article focuses on student participation in the research process as a contribution to school improvement. The specific aim of this article was to explore students' participation in different phases of a research process and discuss how their participation can contribute to school improvement. Based on a life-world phenomenological ontology, we used two research and development projects - Full of Value and Arctic Children - to shed light on participation in research. When doing research together with students, we have been inspired by Participatory Appreciative Action Research (PAAR). The methods used in the projects were open writing, group reflection, drawings, and exhibition discussions. This research showed that students were able to explore and express their lived experiences of behaviour and well-being in school, and how this was linked to positive change. We found students trustworthy, capable, and competent, enriching the process of school improvement.
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| 4. |
- Blossing, Ulf
(författare)
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Practice among novice change agents in schools
- 2016
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : SAGE Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 19:1, s. 41-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of the article is to understand practice as negotiation of meaning among novice and internal change agents in school organisations. The research question is as follows: What themes of participation and reification/management occur among the change agents? The study was qualitative in design using the social learning theory of community of practice, as well as organisation development theory in the analysis. Primarily, the data source comprised 36 change agents’ journals during 3 years from 2009 to 2011. Four themes of participation and reification were identified in the agents’ negotiation of meaning in their new role: (1) daily work management, (2) emotional supervision, (3) role development and (4) community development. The change agents reified or managed the problems with various micro-processes to structure the work with the teachers. Over time, more macro-processes became visible. The article concludes that the core of practice is the following question: How should the change agent’s role be developed and built upon? This is the question that nurtures the negotiation in the ongoing participation and reification process of being a change agent.
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| 5. |
- Brodin, Jane, 1942-
(författare)
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Can ICT give children with disabilities equal opportunities in school?
- 2010
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Ingår i: Improvning Schools. - London : Sage. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 13:1, s. 99-112
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Opoportunities for children wih disabilites to participate in school on equal conditions as others are often stressed while reality schows that many childrne with disabilities are stills egregated. ICT has been highlighted as a tool for communication and inclusion for children with disabilities but from research it appears that implementation of technology in children's everyday lift is difficult.One conclusion of the project is that there is a need both for technical and social support in school if ICT schould function as a bridge for inclusion of all pupils.
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| 6. |
- Frelin, Anneli, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Direct and indirect educational relationships : Developing a typology for the contribution of different categories of school staff in relation to students’ educational experiences
- 2015
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : Sage Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 18:1, s. 56-68
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article presents results from a research project exploring the relational interplay between school staff and students, its functions and complexity in the secondary school context. School relationships (between students and different kinds of staff) are more or less indirectly related to educational content: subject matter as well as norms and values. In the teacher–student relationship, the teaching and learning of subject matter largely defines the relationship, whereas for school support staff, the relationship to such content is fairly distant. However, they all have in common that these assigned functions are created for the purpose of enabling the education of our youth. In this article, a case study from a secondary school is used to develop a typology for understanding the relevance that content may have in these different types of relationships. We also explore the sometimes unpredictable ways in which content can emerge as relevant. A year-long case study was conducted during the 2012–2013 school year at a secondary school that had recently been renovated and in which work had been done to improve the educational environment. Multiple data sources were used, including document analysis, mapping, contextual observations and interviews. Official statistics, newspaper articles and school quality reports were used to contextualize the case. In this article, interviews with different categories of school staff and students formed the main source of data. The different assigned functions of the staff were categorized as: educators, education professionals (e.g. counsellors) and education support professionals (e.g. caretakers). Although the latter were often indirectly connected to content, they could also have relevance through the relationships that they developed with students. Here, there is a point in separating the staff´s assigned function as officially described and their relation to students as played out in practice. Two examples illustrate how members of staff diverge somewhat from their assigned functions in informal places and spaces to facilitate the educational experience of the students. It is argued that in a school for all students, this flexibility in school relationships can improve students’ relations to content and school success.
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| 7. |
- Frelin, Anneli, 1969-, et al.
(författare)
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Studying relational spaces in secondary school : applying a spatial framework for the study of borderlands and relational work in school improvement processes
- 2014
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : SAGE Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 17:2, s. 135-147
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article introduces a theoretical framework for studying school improvement processes such as making school environments safer. Using concepts from spatial theory, in which distinctions between mental, social and physical space are applied, makes for a multidimensional analysis of processes of change. In a multi-level case study, these were combined with task perception analysis, where all categories of personnel and management in the school were studied. The results indicated the significance of borderlands in the school for helping students, of organizational transgressions aimed at “making things work” and of social spaces created in the borderlands that contributed to the necessary social glue in the school. This theoretical framework offers alternative and fruitful lenses which can enrich studies of school improvement processes. The use of multiple data sources allows for triangulation, which in turn improves the validity and reliability of the results.
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| 8. |
- Glaés-Coutts, Lena, et al.
(författare)
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Who owns the knowledge? : Knowledge construction as part of the school improvement process
- 2021
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : Sage Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 24:1, s. 62-75
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- When Sweden began to experience a steady decline in student achievement results in PISA and TIMMS, the Swedish National Agency of Education initiated a model of collaboration with Swedish universities aimed at providing support to schools with falling student achievement scores. In this article, we examine how such projects can work at the local school level. Our focus is mainly on how knowledge construction can be realized for teachers and principals; we reflect on whose knowledge is valued, and we explore what role research texts play in school improvement. Working within the frames of both social and cultural processes, we looked at how teachers and principals are provided opportunities to develop and define their own professional understanding of school improvement. We found that knowledge construction of school improvement, as both a political and cultural process, needed to be based on local needs. The guidance of a knowledgeable other in interpreting research literature on school improvement can support such knowledge construction only when the local needs and history are part of the process.
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| 9. |
- Grannäs, Jan, 1967-, et al.
(författare)
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Spaces of student support : comparing educational environments from two time periods
- 2017
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : SAGE Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 20:2, s. 127-142
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article sets out to explore how and whether the physical, social and conceived conditions in schools facilitate or disrupt support work aimed at improving student learning and preventing social exclusion (cf. Author 1 & Author 2, 2013). This is accomplished by comparing student support practices in the common areas of two newly renovated secondary schools built in two different time periods.The focus is on the student support staff’s (exemplified by student welfare officers and school hosts) enactment of support for students’ learning and well-being.This enactment takes place in a designed school environment, where teachers and support staff appropriate spaces for educational purposes in different ways (cf. Stables, 2015). The interview and observational data come from two qualitative case studies. A spatial analysis perspective is used is to investigate the physical, social and conceived aspects of space (Author 1 & Author 2, 2014, 2015). The case schools, located in two municipalities, were originally built in the 1910s (Maple Grove) and the 1960s (Pine Bay). Both schools serve mixed to low SES (socio-economic status) communities and have organized student support functions in the schools’ corridors, cafeterias, recreation areas and other common spaces. These functions include the school host, the student coach and the student welfare officer.The ways in which the support staff claim the locales show that they transcend the initial design functionality by appropriating spaces for their everyday practices (Stables, 2015). Their task perception thus delineates a certain professional territory, a task perception that is taking place, so to speak. The results show that this professional territory can vary, even among those in the same profession. The support functions expand their professional territory by being mobile in the school building and thereby creating more and larger surfaces for social interactions with students and other support functions.
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| 10. |
- Liljenberg, Mette, 1975, et al.
(författare)
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Organizational building versus teachers’ personal and relational needs for school improvement
- 2020
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Ingår i: Improving Schools. - : SAGE Publications. - 1365-4802 .- 1475-7583. ; 24:1, s. 5 -18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Organizational building is essential if school leaders are to promote school improvement, but it can be difficult to combine with school leaders’ requirements to satisfy teachers’ personal and relational needs. The the aim of this study is to explore critical aspects when combining organizational building with requirements to satisfy teachers’ personal and relational needs in efforts to strengthen improvement capacity. The paper draws on a 3-year collaborative research project between a research team at a Swedish university and a municipality. It is based on data acquired in 137 interviews with 535 respondents in 28 public school and preschool units. The results highlight the importance of combining organizational building with efforts to improve teachers’ understanding of, motivation to promote, and adaptation to, the goals of the school organization. The significance of the study lies in clearly distinguishing the need to link organizational building and requirements to meet teachers’ personal and relational needs. Continually telling the story of the school and thus enabling teachers to personally connect to the improvement history is suggested as an innovative school leader strategy.
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