| 1. |
- Boyle, Tess, et al.
(författare)
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Acknowledging, negotiating, and reporting ‘uncomfortable truths’ in action research
- 2023
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Ingår i: Educational Action Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-0792 .- 1747-5074. ; 31:5, s. 909-919
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Critical action research is a praxis-oriented professional learning practice. Such practice requires a move beyond viewing action research as simply a technical or practical method for teacher development; instead, it strives for critical and participatory research. When action research is reduced to a technicist process for professional learning, there is a tendency for valorising reported findings, so seemingly ‘celebratory’ stories emerge. Yet, the process of changing practices is complex and challenging. By sharing some of our own’ uncomfortable truths,’ we reveal the often-hidden realities of action research as spaces of contestation and negotiation, where uncomfortable truths are shared, examined, and sometimes silenced. This engagement in the form of ‘reflexivity of discomfort’ helps shed light on the need for Action Research to be (re)considered as more than a project and instead as a praxis-orientated approach that requires balanced reporting.
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| 2. |
- Boyle, Tess, et al.
(författare)
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An interactive symposium: rethinking practice arrangements for establishing or inhibiting dialogue
- 2020
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Ingår i: CARN Bulletin Collaborative Action Research Network 23. - Split, Croatia : Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. - 9781910029640
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This contribution is our collective reflection of the taken-for-grantedness of ways physical arrangements in conferences promote or inhibit interactive dialogue. We draw from our symposium presentation entitled Uncovering the hidden imperative of communicative spaces: Negotiating uncomfortable truths through action research as the basis for this piece.
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| 3. |
- Boyle, Tess, et al.
(författare)
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Uncover the hidden imperative of communicative spaces: Negotiating uncomfortable truths through action research
- 2019
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Ingår i: CARN conference. Imagine Tomorrow: Practitioner Learning for the Future, Split, October 17-19, 2019.. - : Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN).
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Uncovering the hidden imperative of communicative spaces: Negotiating uncomfortable truths through action research Critical action research is a praxis-oriented professional learning practice. Such practice requires a move beyond viewing action research as simply a technical or practical method for teacher development; instead, it strives for research that is critical and participatory. When action research is reduced to a technicist process for professional learning, there is a tendency for valorising reported findings so seemingly ‘celebratory’ stories emerges. Yet the process of changing practices is complex and challenging. Often the realities of learning and change means that communicative spaces in action research are spaces for contestation and negotiation, where uncomfortable truths are shared, examined and sometimes silenced. Uncovering these aspects of the change endeavour is a necessary part of addressing and reporting the realities of practitioners’ experiences and outcomes in action research taken up in this symposium. We propose that this is an imperative for safe-guarding the future uptake of action research among the professions. Drawing on cross-sectoral action research projects in Australia, New Zealand and Sweden, this collection of papers examines the conditions that enable and constrain communicative spaces as ‘sites’ for praxis. In doing so we expose uncomfortable truths about communicative spaces in critical action research, whilst also examining distinctive conditions which act as mechanisms for sustaining practice and praxis development. Papers reveal ways praxis, as morally committed action, forms a fundamental condition for uncovering uncomfortable truths often ignored. We argue that preserving criticality in action research demands negotiating contested ideologies and practices, and ultimately legitimises the dialogic in, and for, professional learning. We conclude with this provocation for discussion: Is critical action research ‘at risk’ of appropriation by technical interests and aims that oft ignores taken-for-granted knowledges, values and practices of the professions and the messiness of change?
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| 4. |
- Edwards-Groves, Christine, et al.
(författare)
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Facilitating a culture of relational trust in school-based action research: recognising the role of middle leaders
- 2016
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Ingår i: Educational Action Research. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0965-0792 .- 1747-5074. ; 24:3, s. 369-386
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Practices such as formal focused professional dialogue groups, coaching conversations, mentoring conversations and professional learning staff meetings have been taken up in schools and pre-schools as part of long-term action research and development activities to improve the learning and teaching practices. The development of relational trust has long been described in the literature as pivotal for the ongoing ‘success’ of such research and development in sites. In this article, we attempt to re-characterise relational trust as it is accounted for by participants in action research. We present data from a cross-nation study of middle leaders from Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools. Middle leaders are those teachers who ‘lead across’; they have both an acknowledged position of leadership or responsibility for the practice development of colleagues and a significant teaching role. The larger study examined the practices of middle leaders; and in this article we draw on interview data from one of the case-study sites that illustrate how colleagues in schools recognise the role middle leaders have for facilitating action research and teaching development. This article specifically presents excerpts from semi-structured interviews with 25 teachers, three principals, three executive teachers and three district consultants. Interviewees described how nourishing a culture of relational trust and mutual respect are critical features in the change endeavour. For them, the practices of the middle leader who facilitated the action research were instrumental in developing trust for teacher development. Analysis of participant accounts revealed five dimensions of trust: interpersonal trust, interactional trust, intersubjective trust, intellectual trust, and pragmatic trust.
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| 5. |
- Edwards-Groves, Christine, et al.
(författare)
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Facilitating a culture of relational trust in school-based action research: recognising the role of middle leaders
- 2018
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Ingår i: Partnership and Recognition in Action Research. - Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge. - 9780367000851
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Practices such as formal focused professional dialogue groups, coaching conversations, mentoring conversations and professional learning staff meetings have been taken up in schools and pre-schools as part of long-term action research and development activities to improve the learning and teaching practices. The development of relational trust has long been described in the literature as pivotal for the ongoing ‘success’ of such research and development in sites. In this article, we attempt to re-characterise relational trust as it is accounted for by participants in action research. We present data from a cross-nation study of middle leaders from Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools. Middle leaders are those teachers who‘lead across’; they have both an acknowledged position of leadership or responsibility for the practice development of colleagues and a significant teaching role. The larger study examined the practices of middle leaders; and in this article we draw on interview data from one of the case-study sites that illustrate how colleagues in schools recognise the role middle leaders have for facilitating action research and teaching development. This article specifically presents excerpts from semi-structured interviews with 25 teachers, three principals, three executive teachers and three district consultants. Interviewees described how nourishing a culture of relational trust and mutual respect are critical features in the change endeavour. For them, the practices of the middle leader who facilitated the action research were instrumental in developing trust for teacher development. Analysis of participant accounts revealed five dimensions of trust: interpersonal trust, interactional trust, intersubjective trust, intellectual trust, and pragmatic trust.
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| 6. |
- Edwards-Groves, Christine, et al.
(författare)
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Middle leaders' identity–practice framings: A site-ontological view of identity in and as practice
- 2024
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Ingår i: British Educational Research Journal (BERJ). - 0141-1926 .- 1469-3518. ; 50:2, s. 694-712
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper presents an examination of identity in and as practice as it relates to a group of educational practitioners known as middle leaders. Drawing on the theory of practice architectures as a site-ontological approach for conceptualising educational leading, the paper considers an individual's identity as being informed by, and accomplished amidst, the sayings, doings and relatings of practice. Although theorising the connections between identity and practice is not new, a central argument presented is that identity occurs at the nexus of the individual and social practices. Data are drawn from an empirical study of the practices of nine middle leaders responsible for facilitating a district-wide initiative aiming to improve literacy pedagogy in their particular primary schools. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with the middle leaders revealed 11 identity–practice framings which evolve over time and space, negotiated in response to site-based conditions. Findings contribute to understandings about the dynamic multifaceted nature of middle leaders' identities.
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| 7. |
- Grootenboer, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Characterising the practice of middle leaders in action research as site based educational development
- 2017
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Ingår i: Participación & Democratización del conocimiento Nuevas convergencias pra la reconciliación. ARNA conference June 12-16, Cartagena, Colombia.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper examines the practices and practice architectures of middle leading in school-based action research. Middle leading is signified by the work of those classroom teachers who have the dual responsibility for teaching students and leading the professional learning of colleagues. Drawing on recent theorizing of site based education development, and longitudinal data from interviews and observations of action research conducted in Swedish and Australian schools, this paper extends the characteristics of teacher leaders – as middle leaders - by focusing on their practices. Using the theory of practice architectures the features, characteristics and issues associated with leading from the middle are examined; data will show how the positionality of these leaders (both as a teacher and as a leader) it critical for driving sustainable school based development. Through teacher accounts, authors draw out how middle leading practices are ecologically arranged with, and mediated by, other educational practices in any school. Findings reveal how middle leading practices are enabled and constrained by the associated cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements in the site. To navigate these arrangements, it is argued that the complex relational nature of those who work as middle leaders demands re-characterising and re-positioning concepts of leading-for-change in education.
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| 8. |
- Grootenboer, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Leading from the Middle: A Praxis-Oriented Practice
- 2017
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Ingår i: Practice Theory Perspectives on Pedagogy and Education: Praxis, Diversity and Contestation / Editors: Grootenboer, Peter, Edwards-Groves, Christine, Choy, Sarojni. - Singapore : Springer. - 9789811031281 ; , s. 243-263
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Educational leadership has long been a focus of research and scholarship that focuses on effective education and school improvement. This has usually centred on the important practices of principals; but here we focus on the leading of those who are closer to the classroom—middle leaders. Middle leaders are those who have an acknowledged leadership position, but are also involved in teaching in the classroom. In this landscape, a prime role of middle leading is site-based staff and curriculum development. In this chapter, we discuss the features, characteristics and issues associated with leading from the middle, and we show how this is a mediated practice that is critical to educational development in school sites. It is mediated since the work of the middle leader is enabled and constrained by the cultural-discursive , material -economic and social-political arrangements exuding from policy and school personnel that are brought to bear on their practices. To navigate these arrangements, we will argue that the complex relational nature of this role demands practical wisdom, and the enactment of praxis .
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| 9. |
- Grootenboer, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Leading practice development: voices from the middle
- 2015
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Ingår i: Professional Development in Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1941-5257 .- 1941-5265. ; 41:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Leadership has long been acknowledged as a significant dimension in effective school functioning and, indeed, school leaders can play a substantial role in professional development of staff. Here we have centred on the practices of leading as opposed to the qualities or characteristics of leaders, and this is emphasised by our use of the term ‘leading’ rather than ‘leadership’. In this article we explicitly focus on the leading practices of practitioners we describe as middle leaders, those with an acknowledged position of leadership but also a significant teaching role. Here we present data from a cross-national study of middle leaders in Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools that investigates the leading practices of middle leaders in educational contexts. The article draws on interviews with 22 teachers who have been given the responsibility for leading the practice development of their colleagues; these interviews give voice to this distinctive group of school leaders. In particular, the article draws on the theory of practice architectures to examine the social nature of the language, activities and relationships of leading ‘in the middle’, and the particular conditions or practice architectures that enable or constrain the development of middle leading practices in education. From this analysis we conclude with a definition of middle leading that includes positional, philosophical and practice dimensions. This could then be used to inform the domains of higher education, policy development and school education globally where middle leading practices are well established.
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| 10. |
- Grootenboer, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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Middle Leadership in Schools: A practical Guide for Leading Learning
- 2020
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Bok (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Leadership matters in education, and it matters at all levels and in all domains of education. We have known for a long time that leadership is important in education, and that good leadership is a critical factor in successful schooling. This assertion is grounded in over 40 years of research into educational leadership from across a range of countries and continents across the world. However, while there is a plethora of literature on educational leadership, almost all of it is about principals and positional heads. But we know that in schools, and other educational institutions, leadership is not just the prerogative of the principal – there are many others who are leading the education in a school site. It is these leaders that we want to address in this book, and to think about how their leading practices can be understood and developed. We describe these leaders as “middle leaders” In the past middle leaders have not received much attention, but their work in schools, with teachers, with students and with principals are critical to the provision and development of education in schools, early childhood centres, vocational training colleges, and other educational institutions. It seems to us that middle leaders are generally offered little professional development, training, or support for their roles, and so here we want to provide some ideas that can fill that gap.
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