Search results
1 – 3 of 3Anita Caduff, Marie Lockton, Alan J. Daly and Martin Rehm
The study analyzes how equity-focused knowledge brokers, working at different levels of the US education system, understand and discuss capacity building in education systems…
Abstract
Purpose
The study analyzes how equity-focused knowledge brokers, working at different levels of the US education system, understand and discuss capacity building in education systems, such as schools, districts, state and local education agencies, to answer this research question: How do equity-focused knowledge brokers support capacity building in education systems?
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five well-known equity-focused organizations that broker evidence-based knowledge and resources to educational systems, practitioners and policymakers. The research team members qualitatively analyzed 18 h of recordings, using their co-developed codebook based on the research questions and prior research on knowledge mobilization.
Findings
Four strategies to build capacity within the educational systems were identified. Pursuing sustainable educational change, brokering organizations built capacity with context-specific strategies: (1) engaging various roles within educational systems, (2) fostering communities and partnerships, (3) supporting educators and policymakers’ agency and efficacy and (4) creating a wider culture of external support beyond the systems themselves.
Originality/value
This study shows how knowledge brokers employed context-specific strategies targeting whole systems instead of individuals to ensure that the organization and individuals within had the mindsets, capability, and conditions to engage with and adapt the brokered knowledge and resources. Findings build on existing literature showing how knowledge brokers build capacity through well-known approaches, such as workshops/training, online tutorials and other online resources.
Details
Keywords
Hayley Weddle, Marie Lockton and Amanda Datnow
While the benefits of teacher collaboration are well documented, less is known about how emotions intersect with teachers’ collective work. Educational change is an emotional…
Abstract
Purpose
While the benefits of teacher collaboration are well documented, less is known about how emotions intersect with teachers’ collective work. Educational change is an emotional process, as reform efforts often involve shifts in teachers’ daily routines and professional identities. To better understand these complexities, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collaborative efforts to improve instruction.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on qualitative data, this longitudinal case study of one teacher team explores how teacher collaboration for instructional improvement intersects with emotional geographies. Data analyzed include three years of meeting observations and annual interviews with teachers and school leaders.
Findings
An analysis of data reveals how emotions both shaped and were shaped by teachers’ collaboration experiences. Varying beliefs about practice, expectations about collective work and identity (in this case, gender) impacted collaboration and subsequently opportunities for instructional improvement.
Practical implications
This study demonstrates how attending to the emotional aspects of teacher collaboration could serve as an effective strategy for bolstering capacity-building efforts. Findings highlight the interplay between emotional geographies, suggesting that common ground across one geography could potentially be built upon to close gaps across others.
Originality/value
This study provides a unique longitudinal exploration of the emotional dimensions of teachers’ collective work. The study also contributes to new knowledge about the ways in which teachers’ emotions and collaborative experiences intersect, including the interplay between emotional geographies.
Details
Keywords
How teachers collectively address conflicting beliefs about reforms and come to privilege some over others is critically important in understanding instructional change and…
Abstract
Purpose
How teachers collectively address conflicting beliefs about reforms and come to privilege some over others is critically important in understanding instructional change and stability. The paper aims to discuss this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on in-depth qualitative data gathered in interviews and observations of teachers’ formal collaboration time, this study focuses on teacher dialogue to examine the voicing and debate of teachers’ beliefs about reform efforts in their schools. Specifically, in two urban middle schools engaged in math instructional reforms, what are the conditions of teachers’ collaboration time that shape their dialogue about the feasibility of these reforms?
Findings
The findings reveal that the beliefs teachers voice vary widely depending on the topic of conversation. Teachers’ conversations about student achievement data and tracking elicited doubts about the possibility of instructional change, and conversations about other forms of student data and instructional strategies elicited a wider range of beliefs. Further, opportunities to meet with trusted colleagues as well as with wider groups provide teachers with different, but both useful experiences in exploring their own conflicting beliefs.
Practical implications
Avenues for shifting institutionalized beliefs about instruction in schools that have struggled to embrace equitable instructional practices for struggling students are discussed, along with implications for future research.
Originality/value
There is considerable research highlighting the characteristics of productive collaboration, but this paper provides a deeper understanding of the way teachers collectively negotiate beliefs about instructional changes in schools struggling to meet that mark.
Details