This article deepens the knowledge of practices within school cultures and their dynamics in relation to improvement work. It investigates: Which practices can be identified in school improvement among principals at upper secondary school level? How are these practices shaped? How do they promote or prevent the improvement work of the principals? Three of six identified practices challenged the planned improvement. The significance of the study is the practice perspective which visualizes and concretizes the complexity within school cultures in relation to the dynamics of improvement work; it illuminates changes and subcultures as well as external factors shaping the culture. The practice perspective used in the study avoids descriptions of general culture types and results based on experiences, which are common challenges within school culture research. The study suggests researchers conduct practice analyses to illustrate complexity within school cultures and improvement.
This article deepens the knowledge of middle leaders’ impact on school improvement and organisation development. More precisely, it focuses on how middle leaders from comprehensive schools and preschools translated improvement strategies and tools from a municipal course on leading school improvement into their own organisations. It is based on interviews with middle leaders, teachers, and principals at two schools and two preschools. Translation theory is used as a theoretical frame. The findings show that the middle leaders translated improvement strategies based on local needs, and for several reasons: for clarification and reduction of roles and improvement areas; structuring improvement work; engaging and involving colleagues in school improvement; and developing a professional culture. When taking the role of translators, the middle leaders became central to progressing the developmental elements of local school organisations. The study recommends investing to provide middle leaders with improvement strategies and an understanding of translation theory to enable translations that aid the development of school organisations.
This study involved six Swedish and Canadian doctoral students who shared interests in using action research in professional education in different disciplines. We employed Noffke’s three dimensions of action research as a theoretical framework (i.e., the Professional, the Personal, and the Political). Using collective biography as a methodology, we cooperatively examined how our personal and professional agendas and macro-level structures have been shaping our intentions to conduct action research projects in our respective disciplines. The key findings of this international and interdisciplinary collective biography relate our growing awareness of the intimacy between research and life in various professional and geographic contexts. Collectively addressing our shared frustrations, we celebrated action research as a methodology that attends to the dynamic and concrete lived experiences of our participants in various spatio-temporalities. Reflecting upon the hybridity of our own researcher identities, we were also able to see the intimate relation between ourselves as active citizens and critical action researchers who are determined to take up the challenges and engage in critically oriented action research that could nurture more “caring,” “empowering,” and “transforming” public spheres.
Syftet med denna artikel är att generera kunskap om införandet av nya professioner och kompletterande kompetens i skolan. Den presenterar en fallstudie om en grundskolas arbete att med kompletterande kompetens främja elevnärvaro. Forskningsfrågorna är vad personal med kompletterande kompetens gör i en skolas närvarofrämjande arbete och vad som möjliggör respektive begränsar arbetet. Dokument, fältanteckningar och intervjutranskriptioner har analyserats ur ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv, ett perspektiv som saknas i tidigare forskning inom området. Resultatet visar att kompletterande kompetens på kort tid kan förbättra förutsättningarna för skolors närvarofrämjande arbete genom att sätta och hålla kvar frånvaroproblematiken på agendan, bidra med nya arbetssätt och utgöra förtroendegivande samtalspart för elever och vårdnadshavare. Samtidigt begränsas arbetet av otydliga roller och avgränsningar till andra, revirtänkande samt rådande och tidigare rutiner för att hantera frånvaroproblematik. Förutsättningar behöver förfinas och belysas för att kompletterande kompetens ska integreras i skolans sfär och jämlika förutsättningar för elevers livslånga lärande och hälsa ska skapas.
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