Schools: A place of ecological learning

This article explores the concept of 'ecologisation of schools' as a form of school development and is based upon a study commissioned by the Federal Austrian Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. On the basis of a material and literature search on models and experiences gained from school-based environmental projects in Central Europe and in England, some quality features for an ecologisation process of schools are suggested. These features are the basis of an ecological school development programme in Austria, which is described briefly in this study.     

Two basic mechanisms for organisational learning in schools

SUMMARY In recent literature on teachers' professional communities and organisational learning in schools the focus is on conditions fostering teacher professional developments. Less attention has been paid to clarifying these concepts and to analysing the processes and the full range of outcomes of organisational learning in schools. The question in this article is whether and how teachers' professional communities can play a role in organisational learning and professional development. Firstly, recent research literature on teachers' workplace conditions, teachers' professional communities, and organisational learning in schools is discussed. Next, two basic mechanisms for organisational learning in schools are presented. Some conclusions are that the opportunities for steering intentional organisational learning in the school context are only weak, and that a balance should be created in the school between diverging conditions for organisational learning     

Teachers’ conceptions of quality and organisational values in higher education: compliance or enhancement?

Teachers are often assumed to have a negative attitude towards quality endeavours of their institutions and to hold defensive organisational values. However, there is little empirical research on this issue. This study focuses on teachers’ conceptions of quality, on their preferred organisational values and on the relationships between the two. A written questionnaire was presented to the teaching staff from 18 departments of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (N?=?266). It comprised 18 questions about teachers’ conceptions of quality, representing two quality scales: compliance and accountability and enhancement and improvement. A further 24 questions, related to organisational values, represent two scales that typify flexible organisations, and two that typify control-oriented organisations. The results reveal a neutral score on the compliance and accountability conceptions of quality and on the control-oriented organisational values, and a high score on enhancement and improvement and on the flexibility-oriented values. Both pairs appear to be moderately positively correlated. Despite the need for further qualitative research, it can be concluded that teachers perceive quality first and foremost as enhancement and improvement, rather than as compliance to external standards and accountability. These findings offer interesting perspectives for the further development of an internal quality culture in higher education.     

SOAP in practice: learning outcomes of a cross‐institutional innovation project conducted by teachers,student teachers,and teacher educators

This paper reports on a case study investigating learning outcomes at the individual and organisational level of a cross‐institutional innovation project based on the SOAP approach. SOAP integrates Schooling of teachers, Organisational development of schools, Action‐ and development‐oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. The innovation project was aimed at combining teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators in an alliance to design and develop new competence‐based vocational educational arrangements for pupils. An inductive qualitative analysis of 37 semi‐structured interviews among the participants revealed seven main categories of individual learning outcomes: attitudes, project design and management, collaboration, action theory, teaching practice, educational principles, and developments within secondary vocational education. Three main categories of organisational learning outcomes were identified: institution‐level learning, project‐level learning, and combining institution‐level and project‐level learning. A tension was identified between the participants’ individual interests in learning and personal development, and the need for organisational learning aimed at improving organisational processes.     

The rewards of human capital competences for young European higher education graduates

Abstract

The labour market rewards for a number of required human capital competences are analysed using a sample of young European higher education graduates. Factor analysis is applied to classify competences by jobs into eight orthogonal groups, namely participative, methodological, specialised, organisational, applying rules, physical, generic and socio‐emotional competences. Estimates for the total rewards for competences are obtained through conventional wage regression, whereas estimates of the total rewards are derived in terms of job satisfaction through ordered logit regression. Explanatory variables include personal characteristics, job attributes, occupational titles, fields of study, type of higher education institution and country dummies. Results on wage rewards show that jobs with higher requirements of participative and methodological competences are best paid; conversely, jobs with higher requirements of organisational, applying‐rules and physical competences are worse paid. Results on total rewards suggest that jobs with higher requirements of competences increase graduates’ satisfaction, the only exception being applying‐rules competences.     

Exploring UK secondary teachers' professional values: an overview of the literature since 2000

Background:?Professional commitment from teachers requires more than contractual compliance as personal and professional values are integral to teaching practice. Secondary school teachers are expected to act as role models and demonstrate positive attributes and attitudes in an evolving educational context. Little is known about how they understand or interpret their own values, or realise the shared values that lie at the heart of a school community.

Purpose:?The purpose of this review is to summarise the literature relating to values that teachers hold. The review is concerned with theoretical and empirical studies in which such values are considered, and also any tensions identified between the personal values of teachers and organisational values of the schools reflected in professional practice. This scoping exercise is part of two-year funded empirical research carried out by the authors in five secondary schools in England, using data from individuals, groups and schools on the personal values of teachers and head teachers. This research explored whether these values are congruent with the organisational values schools seek to establish.

Design and methods:?An extensive literature review was undertaken relating to the values held by secondary school professionals. The search was restricted to more recent works (i.e. the year 2000 onwards), and was mainly UK and secondary education focused. The search was conducted using the educational database, Education Indexes on Dialog, and the Electronic Journal Service which is a database covering wider disciplines. To reach harder-to-find research reports, additional strategies were adopted including hand searching of key journals and reference to existing publication lists. The review generated over 1000 published references that were then screened to determine whether publications were based on empirical research conducted in schools, and/or helped a deeper theoretical understanding about the meaning of values.

Conclusion:?The review highlights the integral part values continue to play in education. This article presents a framework of understanding derived from the literary contexts in which values are discussed. There is little empirical data to support current understanding about the values that secondary teachers hold, and how these fit with the organisational values of the schools in which they work. Studies in the context of values and professionalism stress the need for dialogue and reflection so that ‘implicit’ values that teachers hold become explicit, and refined through practice.     

Bringing Organisations and Systems Back Together: Extending Clark's Entrepreneurial University

Burton R. Clark's 1998 book, Creating Entrepreneurial Universities, has had a major impact on the field of higher education, especially internationally. In this paper, key aspects of Clark's conceptualisation of organisational pathways of transformation are identified, speaking to its theoretical and empirical contributions to higher education studies, policy and practice. In addition, the larger corpus of Clark's work is built on to offer avenues by which considerations of systems analysis and organisational studies can be brought back together to address the strategic challenges and opportunities for individual universities and state as well as national systems of higher education.     

Action research and organisational learning: a Norwegian approach to doing action research in complex organisations

The purpose of this article is to present a specific approach to the practice of action research ‘in complex organisations’. Clearly, there are many approaches to the challenge of doing action research in organisations; approaches that are, and also must be, quite context dependent and specific. But my purpose is neither to give an overview nor a recommendation of how action research is or should be done in complex organisations by different schools of action researchers around the world. The approach I will present has grown through practical experience accumulated over many years with doing action research in many different Norwegian organisations with organisational change and development as the specific objective. I will limit myself to an outline of this Norwegian context, and to how I and others have worked specifically with organisational learning both practically and theoretically within or in relation to a broad Norwegian or Scandinavian approach to action research and organisation development represented by many individuals.     

The predictive value of job demands and resources on the meaning of work and organisational commitment across different age groups in the higher education sector

This study examines the predictive value of job demands and resources on the meaning of work and organisational commitment across three age groups; young workers (<30 years), a middle age group of workers (30–49 years) and older workers (>50 years). Data were collected from a survey conducted among university employees (N = 3066). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationship between the antecedent variables and the meaning of work and organisational commitment in the age groups separately. Age differences in the experience of these two variables were tested by one-way ANOVA. Both job demands and resources were related to the meaning of work and organisational commitment, however, the relative importance of demands and resources varied across the groups. Overall, older workers reported higher scores on the meaning of work and organisational commitment. The results suggest that different interventions should be considered when aiming to improve the meaning of work and commitment among different age groups.     

Professional learning among specialist staff in resourced mainstream schools for pupils with ASD and SLI

Supporting pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in mainstream schools is a challenging task. This article proposes a professional development framework for educational psychologists (EPs) to consider when supporting the development of specialist ASD staff. The framework focuses on training content, educator characteristics and organisational elements. Nine mainstream schools developing additional provision to support children with ASD and specific language impairment (SLI) participated in the research. Specialist staff were provided with training and took part in follow up interviews about their developing practice. A pre- and post-questionnaire of participants (N = 30) attending the specialist training is supplemented with longitudinal interview data from specialist staff (N = 20). A paired sample t-test of questionnaire data showed that staff self-efficacy significantly increased pre- to post-training with a large effect size (0.61). Thematic analysis of interviews provided evidence of sustained professional development over time, underpinned by supportive organisational factors.     

Learning from patients: constructions of knowledge and legitimacy in hospital-based quality improvement programmes

ABSTRACT

Health services organisations are increasingly incorporating patient engagement strategies as a form of quality improvement. Such strategies take form in programmes where organisations partner with patients in order to learn from their experiences and thereby change how services are designed, delivered, and implemented. In this study, we examined the enactment of patient engagement programmes within an academic health science organisation in Canada. This was accomplished through an exploration of the various constructions of patient participants’ legitimacy, credibility, and expertise as manifesting through participation in the various practices associated with the programmes. Analysis was based on a selection of international, national, and organisational texts, as well as interviews with patient participants (n?=?20) and hospital staff members (n?=?6). Through this analysis, we argue that organisations are not learning from patients per se, but are learning from particular constructions of patient subjectivities in the form of patient advisers. We argue that if patient engagement programmes are premised upon opportunities to learn from patients, these programmes require a coherent theory of workplace learning. We suggest attention to the politics of knowledge production as a fruitful way to conceptualise how clinicians and administrators might learn from patients at the organisational level.     

Claims and counterclaims: institutional arrangements and farmers’ response to the delivery and adoption of innovations in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

Purpose: This article examined how institutional factors influencing the promotion of two elephant crop-raiding deterrent innovations (ECDIs) introduced to farmers through a ministry-based extension system in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, have impacted farmers’ adoption behaviour. Methodology: A standardised interview schedule was used to elicit responses from 388 randomly sampled subsistence arable farmers on how institutions influenced the adoption of ECDIs in five communities in the study area. This was complemented by focus group discussions to obtain in-depth information on the subject-matter. Key informants interviews were also conducted with purposively selected extension agents, village project committee chairpersons and village dikgosi. Findings: Four institutional factors were found to be critical for the adoption of ECDIs. These include institutional relations, availability and/or supply of deterrent innovation inputs, farmers’ contact with extension agents and government support for extension services. Theoretical Implications: Immediate and widespread adoption of ECDIs in the ever-changing socio-economic and political environment can be enhanced by context-specific institutional arrangements in addressing social and organisational constraints to innovation adoption. Originality: This paper invoked organisational theory to contribute to the scholarly debate on how agricultural extension systems influence farming clientele’s behaviour and social change. It offers the first attempt in the investigation of the role of extension and associated institutions/organisations in promoting adoption of ECDIs among subsistence farmers in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. Findings indicate that local farmers do not perceive extension agencies to hold monopoly of ideas and solutions to their unique problems.     

Web‐delivered,problem‐based learning in organisational behaviour: a new form of CAOS

Recent calls have been made for a fundamental reorientation in higher education from a curriculum that simply transmits information (learner as receiver) to one that encourages students actively to construct their own knowledge and practice using new skills and concepts (learner as constructor). In response, the Case Analysis in Organisational Situations (CAOS) assessment tool was developed for use in teaching organisational behaviour. It follows the principles of problem‐based learning and group work, using an unfolding case design. A pre‐test (n=365), immediate post‐test (n=323) and delayed post‐test (n=129) design was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of this new learning tool. The assessment of student approaches to learning revealed that students were more likely to adopt a deep approach to learning at the end of CAOS than at the beginning. In general, the results show that CAOS is a useful web‐based tool that promotes learning in organisational behaviour. The benefits of CAOS and some suggested improvements to the existing CAOS format are discussed.     

Lifelong learning characteristics,adjustment and extra-role performance in cooperative education

Many organisations hire students from cooperative education (co-op) programmes. These organisations are interested in students’ performance, particularly in their extra-role performance. Previous studies show that socialisation processes play an important part in establishing adjustment and performance. It may also be the case that students’ approach to learning (their motivations, attitudes and strategies) influences the socialisation process, and consequently adjustment and performance. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of co-op students’ lifelong learning characteristics on two organisational socialisation outcomes (role understanding and social acceptance) and three types of extra-role performance (proactive, adaptive and prosocial). Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey of undergraduates (n = 1698) enrolled in co-op who had just completed a work term in a new role. Regression analyses showed that lifelong learning characteristics influenced both forms of adjustment, and all three forms of performance. Further mediation analyses showed that both forms of adjustment partially mediated the relationships between lifelong learning and all three forms of performance. These results suggest that co-op students’ lifelong learning characteristics play an important role during organisational socialisation and subsequent extra-role performance. Implications for future research and for practice are discussed.     

Women,leadership, and power revisiting the Wicked Witch of the West

By examining the cultural images present in the popular musical Wicked, cultural norms and biases toward women in leadership and women’s leadership practices are explored. The discussion rests on conceptions of male and female leadership ‘styles’, how power is obtained and utilised within organisational settings and how resistance and reproduction play key roles in how women as leaders are accepted.     

Infusing educational technologies in the heart of the university—A systematic literature review from an organisational perspective

Educational technologies have experienced unprecedented prominence on university agendas with many institutions motivated to keep the lessons learned from the COVID-19 sparked transition with regard to online teaching. In response to this renewed interest in ensuring the longevity of educational technologies in higher education, this systematic review analysed the various organisational factors—for example, leadership, infrastructure, strategy—considered essential in the literature for the successful implementation of educational technologies. Specifically, we reviewed 1614 papers published in five prominent educational technology journals in the last decade. From this sample, we identified 47 papers that discussed organisational factors. Drawing on these studies, we constructed an organisational framework, which outlines the different organisational factors, actors and processes involved in implementing educational technologies. The identified organisational factors are structured into three main categories: (1) Leadership and Strategy, (2) Infrastructure and Resources and (3) Recognition and Motivation. Our aim was to further the scholarly understanding of the organisational layer involved in digital change as well as provide concrete recommendations for practitioners.

Practitioner notes

What is already known about this topic

• Previous research has stressed the importance of taking organisational factors such as infrastructure, leadership, strategy and staff commitment into account when implementing educational technologies.
• However, review papers have failed to systematically organise these studies to create a comprehensive understanding of the organisational factors involved in implementing educational technologies and ensuring their longevity at an institution.
• There is currently a high level of interest in how educational technologies can be implemented in the higher education landscape, as many institutions are facing the question of what lessons they can learn from the crisis and how they can continue on their path of digitalisation.

What this paper adds

• This review paper addresses a gap in our scholarly understanding of the organisational layers involved in the implementation of educational technologies in higher education institutions (HEIs).
• This paper provides a framework on organisational factors, which influence the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• This review paper demonstrates that bottom-up and opinion leadership, support structures tailored to the need and time of faculty as well as recognition and incentives have the largest impact on a sustainable implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• Universities should create structures that enable innovation and creativity by promoting bottom-up and opinion leadership as well as shared decision-making processes as they are important for the successful implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• Besides providing a reliable and suitable infrastructure, institutional support and resources in terms of technical advice and training tailored to specific needs, should be in place when planning the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.
• The additional workload instructors face when implementing digital teaching should be recognised and incentivised as it strengthens instructor engagement which is crucial for the implementation of educational technologies in HEIs.

     

Reorganising Institutional Structures and Processes for Excellence

The scope and nature of the personnel function in Australian universities, and the way in which responsibility is allocated, cannot be separated from the organisational context. Central determinants in a particular context include the way in which the organisation copes with its external environment and the compatibility of the dominant organisational interests with those of its members. In the investigation reported here, managerial perspectives on selected contextual influences on the role of personnel departments were sought from managers at the two South Australian universities. Differences were found between the relative importance managers thought was given to contextual influences, and the importance they thought should be given to these influences. Managers in general, however, thought that their needs should predominate over such contextual influences as trades unions and government legislation.     

The impact of being part of an action learning set for new lecturers: a reflective analysis

What is an action learning set (ALS)? An ALS is a regular, action focused peer discussion group, generally facilitated, to address work place issues. Methods of undertaking ALS: methods are flexible within a range of approaches according to the group's developing needs. Benefits of ALS: builds trust, professional development, enables action, increases self-awareness and organisational thinking. Conclusion: ALS represents a workable peer group supervision format worth considering in nursing education and practice.