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1 – 10 of 875Historically, the school effectiveness and improvement movement has focussed its attention on “within school” factors associated with effectiveness and improvement and on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Historically, the school effectiveness and improvement movement has focussed its attention on “within school” factors associated with effectiveness and improvement and on the individual school as the primary unit of analysis for improvement and scrutiny purposes. More recently, research has focussed on school-to-school collaboration and engagement with a broader range of services and providers has highlighted the need for more adaptive and nuanced forms of collaboration and partnership. The purpose of this paper is to explore this complex landscape from the perspective of educational reform of the middle tier in Scotland.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on perspectives associated with socio-cultural theory, its application to public service settings and insights gained from research and evaluation outcomes over a five-year period.
Findings
This paper focusses on the establishment of Regional Improvement Collaboratives in Scotland; an example of an attempt to generate system-wide change and a shift from the hierarchical cultures characterised by bureaucratic organisations to more egalitarian cultures characterised by mutualistic, laterally networked organisations. It highlights the importance of structure and cultural change, identity and agency, leadership capacity, outward perspectives, primacy of learning and teaching and variations and complexities in creating a more networked and collaborative education system. It offers cautions concerning potential unintended consequences in the quest to develop a “self-improving” or “learning system”.
Practical implications
This paper highlights the importance of maintaining and building social cohesion between different stakeholders within educational systems in order to support the implementation of educational reform.
Originality/value
This is the first documentation and reflective analysis for an ambitious reform agenda for the middle tier in Scotland. Its value lies in the lessons and considerations it offers to other systems embarking on reforms that endeavour to build more cohesive and agile education systems, without opening them up to neo-liberal approaches to education.
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Christopher Chapman and Irene Bell
The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential to use this challenging global context as an opportunity to build back…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and the potential to use this challenging global context as an opportunity to build back better and more equitable educations systems.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken involves drawing on the emerging literature to explore the relationship between COVID-19 and educational equity.
Findings
The analysis undertaken involves the presentation of a typology framed by the quality of educational offer and the opportunity for engagement in the offer accompanied by four reflective questions for further consideration.
Originality/value
The analysis presented here underpins the presentation of a heuristic typology designed to stimulate exploration and discussion relating to building back better, more equitable education systems after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Christopher S. Chapman, Anja Kern, Aziza Laguecir, Gerardine Doyle, Nathalie Angelé-Halgand, Allan Hansen, Frank G.H. Hartmann, Céu Mateus, Paolo Perego, Vera Winter and Wilm Quentin
The purpose is to assess the impact of clinical costing approaches on the quality of cost information in seven countries (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose is to assess the impact of clinical costing approaches on the quality of cost information in seven countries (Denmark, England, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal).
Design/methodology/approach
Costing practices in seven countries were analysed via questionnaires, interviews and relevant published material.
Findings
Although clinical costing is intended to support a similar range of purposes, countries display considerable diversity in their approaches to costing in terms of the level of detail contained in regulatory guidance and the percentage of providers subject to such guidance for tariff setting. Guidance in all countries involves a mix of costing methods.
Research limitations/implications
The authors propose a two-dimensional Materiality and Quality Score (2D MAQS) of costing systems that can support the complex trade-offs in managing the quality of cost information at both policy and provider level, and between financial and clinical concerns.
Originality/value
The authors explore the trade-offs between different dimensions of the quality (accuracy, decision relevance and standardization) and the cost of collecting and analysing cost information for disparate purposes.
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Christopher Chapman, Asako Kimura, Norio Sawabe and Hiroyuki Selmes-Suzuki
This paper aims to explore how researchers in general, and field researchers in particular, might respond to systems of governance of the researchers' activity in ways that can…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how researchers in general, and field researchers in particular, might respond to systems of governance of the researchers' activity in ways that can support rather than distort the quality of the research.
Design/methodology/approach
We draw upon literature on serendipity to develop a framework for engaging with the positive and negative potentials of systems of governance. We ground our analysis in discussion of participation in the field comprising two parts: first, the examination of our own activities and second, the accounts of participation found in two career-autobiographical interviews with emeritus professors of management accounting from Japan.
Findings
We highlight the potential for a productive tension between two contrasting perspectives that researchers might take on governance of their activity. A contractual perspective sees the value of targets and detailed pre-planning. A reflexive perspective sees the value of exploring the unexpected and considering many alternatives. We offer a framework for considering serendipity and the conditions that facilitate serendipity to help researchers maintain a productive tension between these perspectives.
Research limitations/implications
We build upon retrospective accounts of two successful individuals whose careers evolved in a specific context. The intention is not to set out what might be generally achievable in a research career, nor to propose specific lines of action or planning in relation to specific systems of governance, since these vary across countries and over time. Rather, the paper draws on these materials to illuminate the more general challenge of preparing for serendipity in a way that goes beyond simple opportunism.
Originality/value
We analyse how researchers' mindfulness of serendipity and the nature of contexts that facilitate serendipity can encourage a productive tension between contractual and reflexive perspectives on governance of academic activity.
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Romina Madrid Miranda, Katharina Glas and Christopher Chapman
The literature highlights the disconnection between university-based teacher education and field experiences as a significant barrier to student teacher preparation. To address…
Abstract
Purpose
The literature highlights the disconnection between university-based teacher education and field experiences as a significant barrier to student teacher preparation. To address this gap, the Research Teams (RTs) programme promotes a Networked Learning System (NLS), focusing on boundary-crossing work, inquiry and critical reflection to generate knowledge. This paper examines the emergence of relational and collective agency within this collaboration, linking school and university knowledge to enhance professional learning and drive teaching innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing an exploratory qualitative design, data collection includes advising team notes, reflective session materials, interviews and focus groups. Qualitative content and discourse analysis were utilised.
Findings
Findings reveal how RTs promote relational agency among university tutors, school staff and preservice teachers and collective agency in the context of collaborative research. The pandemic presents both social interaction opportunities and challenges.
Originality/value
The relevance of this study lies in the necessity to advance knowledge regarding the development of collaborative learning systems that encourage cross-institutional relationships, allowing for the creation and flow of knowledge. It highlights the role and development of collective and relational agency in fostering the development of a NLS. It also raises questions about the challenges and investments needed to sustain and scale collaborative research models that cross professional and institutional values and beliefs within schools and universities.
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Aziza Laguecir, Christopher S. Chapman and Anja Kern
The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the organizational construction of profit at the responsibility-centre level, how underlying cost calculations are challenged, and the role of accountants therein.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses profit calculation in a public social housing organization that experienced New Public Management (NPM). Participant observations, archives and interviews inform the study over three years, enabling access to day-to-day practices.
Findings
This study examines a trial of strength that revisited long-existing profitability and cost calculations. Accountants held competing views of how to treat labour costs. Some were anti-programme during a trial of incompatibility, while others were programme defenders. The authors also provide evidence of the stability of an established network and its resistance to the claims of an adversary spokesperson in a trial of strength. The concept of trial of incompatibility proved helpful in showing how the actor networks within OMEGA played out the tension between profit orientation and the social mission of offering affordable dwellings.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides rare qualitative data on the significant and complex role of calculative costing choices in determining intra-organizational profitability and its interference with the inherent social mission of the organization.
Practical implications
The authors suggest that profitability calculations are influenced not only by economic context but also by different views of organizational actors regarding how to calculate profit. These calculations would benefit from a more detailed and explicit documentation of reasons for choices made, given the potential for different and, in principle, equally valid approaches. The authors provide further evidence of the complexity of the public social housing sector.
Social implications
This research points to a departure from the mission of public social housing in the face of NPM reforms and further questions the compatibility of a profit orientation with the provision of affordable dwellings.
Originality/value
The findings show intra-accounting variation regarding a specific element of profit calculation (labour costs) relating to the organization’s wider mission and status.
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Mauricio Pino Yancovic, Alvaro González Torres, Luis Ahumada Figueroa and Christopher Chapman
Mauricio Pino Yancovic, Alvaro González Torres, Luis Ahumada Figueroa and Christopher Chapman
Mauricio Pino Yancovic, Alvaro González Torres, Luis Ahumada Figueroa and Christopher Chapman
Mauricio Pino Yancovic, Alvaro González Torres, Luis Ahumada Figueroa and Christopher Chapman