School-to-school support within a competitive education system: views from the inside

Abstract

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School‐to‐school collaboration in England: A configurative review of the empirical evidence

“…This echoes Higham and Yeomans (2010) who refer to the depth of engagement with the collaborative activity in their research that ‘ determined the extent to which a partnership was principally a talking shop for senior managers or had an impact upon the day‐to‐day practices of member institutions’ (p. 389). A number of other studies identify leadership, in respect of establishing clear goals, coordination and the sharing of responsibility, as central to collaborative practice between schools (see, for example, Ainscow et al ., 2006; Allen, 2007; Chapman & Hadfield, 2010; Hayes & Lynch, 2013; Chapman & Muijs, 2013; Howland, 2014; Muijs, 2015a; Armstrong & Ainscow, 2018; Brown et al ., in press).…”

“…Other studies that emphasise the importance of relational factors include Day and Hadfield (2004), Allen (2007), Hadfield (2007), Varga‐Atkins et al . (2010), West (2010), Hayes and Lynch (2013), Armstrong and Ainscow (2018) and Brown et al . (in press).…”

“…They also emphasise forms of leadership that are sensitive to possible tension between partners. Armstrong and Ainscow (2018) have drawn on the notion of coopetition through their research into system leadership and school‐to‐school support in England and found some support for this theory within their findings.…”

“…In recent years assumptions surrounding the possibilities for school‐to‐school collaboration have been tested out at scale within the English context as policymakers experiment with structural reforms and directives underpinned by the notion of a self‐improving system in which schools will supposedly support themselves and each other to raise standards of teaching and learning and address educational inequality (Greany, 2015). At the same time, the English educational system remains a deeply marketised arena in which schools must compete over pupils, funding and resources in order to survive (Keddie & Lingard, 2015), leading to what Armstrong and Ainscow (2018) describe as an ‘unusual cocktail of collaboration and competition’ (p. 4). Within this context, how is it that schools can work together, and what are the necessary conditions for such activity?…”

Using research to promote equity within education systems: Possibilities and barriers

“…The projects did continue, however, although with less power to make things happen. Having said that, in the case of one of the initiatives, we have recent empirical evidence of the continuing impact of its legacy 5 years later, most strikingly in terms of partnerships and networks (Armstrong & Ainscow, ).…”