Teacher learning communities and educational change in Scotland: The Highland experience

This article discusses the issue of the sustainability of educational change in the light of findings from research undertaken in tandem with a development project initiated by a Scottish Education Authority, The Highland Council. The paper reviews some of the key themes that have emerged from recent literature on educational change, before drawing on the project data to address two key issues: the factors that have helped to promote and sustain changes within the schools; and the barriers to innovation experienced in these schools. We conclude the article by identifying a range of considerations that should be taken into account by those seeking to innovate and we suggest that, while the Highland model for change has enjoyed a degree of success in inculcating change, more needs to be done to address systemic issues, such as the pervasive influence of a narrow attainment agenda in shaping classroom practice.     

Identity learning: the core process of educational change

The aim of this paper is to offer an additional perspective to the understanding of educational change processes by clarifying the significance of identity learning. Today’s innovations require changes in teachers’ professional identity. Identity learning involves a relation between social‐cognitive construction of new meanings and individual, emotional sense‐making of new experiences. This relationship between cognition and emotion asks for a strong learning environment: the question is whether schools provide these strong learning environments. To answer this question, the paper provides an overview of the existing knowledge about schools as contexts for teacher learning and change. It will become clear that the emotional side of the change process has been overlooked. A model for identity learning is presented, involving both meaning‐giving and sense‐making. Building on this model, it is discussed how school leaders can build strategies for the identity learning of teachers.     

Researching hybrid learning communities in the digital age through educational ethnography

This paper discusses the complexities of investigating the experiences of participants in hybrid (online/offline) learning communities through educational ethnography. In these communities, people construct small cultures in the liminal spaces or ‘border crossings’ between the virtually real and ‘actually’ real, using computer-mediated and face-to-face communications to be simultaneously here and there, intensely local but incorporating global influences of the ‘others’ time and space. Drawing on studies in educational ethnography, this paper shows that researchers can investigate participants' experiences in hybrid communities using a range of multimodal research tools to collect data. However, this can give rise to ethical issues in research since the dispersions and constructions of engagement /disengagement within those communities' communications is bearers of asymmetrical power, rather than egalitarian. Researchers need to recognise the complex nature of the relationship between online and offline processes in their participants lives.     

The principals as literacy leaders with indigenous communities: professional learning and research

Recent educational changes in China such as the decentralization policy and the marketization of education have introduced concepts such as performativity, competition and effectiveness to the education sector and they have become part of the educational lexicon. Such policy shifts force more local participation in teacher education programmes and schools are now identified as the prime site for offering relevant professional learning activities to teachers. However, interestingly, research on professional development of teachers in China has not devoted significant attention to the voices of teachers. This paper examines how teachers from seven schools in Guangdong Province view the effectiveness of these school‐based learning activities within the new context of educational change.     

Policy as Dialogue: Feminist administrators working for educational change

The focus of this paper is upon the way in which feminist educators as administrative 'leaders' conceptualised policy within what could be described as the 'masculinist' bureaucratic culture of an Australian state bureaucracy. The paper arises out of a larger research project focusing upon the ways in which change was viewed by women who have moved from voluntary and reform oriented work in teacher, curriculum and parent organisations into senior administrative positions in the late 1980s. This paper considers how they strategically addressed issues about the production of policy within a culture which was informed by particularly technicist views of bureaucratic rationality whilst negotiating the personal contradictions and tensions of being administrators and feminist educators working for more equitable forms of education.     

Professional standards for teachers: a case study of professional learning

This paper analyses the current Australian policy and research context in relation to developing quality teachers. Like other countries, many educational authorities in Australia are developing professional standards for teachers and the evaluation of teachers against those standards as a mechanism for ensuring and extending the quality of teaching in schools. A key policy consideration involves the use of professional standards as tools for extending professional learning and/or for credentialing and appraisal. This paper considers these uses of standards by drawing on an evaluation of Education Queensland's Professional Standards for Teachers pilot. The pilot focused on using a set of standards as a framework for professional learning. Teachers' perspectives on the standards and their intended use, their engagement with the standards during the pilot and the nature of professional learning associated with that engagement are discussed in light of current policy debates about professional standards.     

Students as change partners: A proposal for educational change in the age of globalization

This essay builds on the concept of students as partners in change proposed in The Fourth Way: The Inspiring Future for Educational Change by Andy Hargreaves and Dennis Shirley (2009) and points out why the current movement toward curriculum standardization and homogenization is counterproductive in preparing students to become competent citizens for the globalized world. Instead, the author suggests that education systems and schools should focus on students as the driving force of educational change. To do so, we need to view students as global entrepreneurs in the sense that they need to become owners of their own learning and develop a globally-oriented entrepreneurial spirit.     

COVID-19 as a catalyst for educational change

PROSPECTS - The massive damages of COVID-19 may be incalculable. But in the spirit of never wasting a good crisis, COVID-19 represents an opportunity to rethink education. The rethinking should not...     

Professional capacity and organizational change as measures of educational effectiveness: assessing the impact of postgraduate education in Development Policy and Management

We tend to measure educational performance by students' attainment in coursework or examinations. In the case of professional education, the impact of the educational programme on the students' own capacities to enhance their work practices, and the wider organizational effects of the students' education and training, are also key ‘products’ of the educational process. This is particularly important with education for Development Policy and Management (DPAM), which is directly concerned with capacity‐building. This article adopts a work‐related approach to educational effectiveness and examines four professional programmes in DPAM—three in Southern Africa and one in the UK. Through the analysis of the results of surveys and case studies, the article demonstrates how a positive learning experience is related to the application of learning at work. However the conditions for applying learning also depend strongly on organizational context, as do the wider organizational impacts of learning. The article presents a broad approach to assessing educational effectiveness in professional programmes which incorporate these factors.     

Towards science educational spaces as dynamic and coauthored communities of practice

In this essay review, four studies around the themes of identity and globalization are summarized and analyzed. The researchers’ perspectives are generally grounded in Brown and Campione’s ideas on situated knowledge (Classroom lessons: Integrating cognitive theory and classroom practice (pp. 229–270). Cambridge: The MIT Press/Bradford Books, 1994) and Lave and Wenger’s definition of learning as an activity fostered through participation in communities of practice (Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1991). Questions about the goals of science education spaces, the nature of globalization in relation to practices in schools, the role of identities-in-practice in relation to participation in communities of practice such as classrooms are explored. Recommendations for key design features in effective science educational spaces, based upon the findings presented in the collection of four studies, are offered. School, it is suggested here, functions best as a clearing house for the myriad science-related stories student participants generate in their various communities of practice (e.g., within popular culture, family, community, informal educational sites). In this way, school has the potential to construct bridges between multiple student experiences and identities-in-practice.

从学习权研究看教育发展趋势

学习权研究目前主要集中在三个方面:受教育权与学习权的关系研究、学习权的内涵研究与学习权的法律保障问题研究。从这一研究现状可以发现,未来的教育发展趋势有:以实现学习型社会为目标、建构正规教育与非正规教育的双轨体系、更加重视成年人的教育、倡导自主学习与非正式学习的方式。     

Teachers making connections: Online communities as a source of professional learning

The impact of the Internet on our lives has been pervasive. People are increasingly turning to the social interaction available on the Internet to satisfy their needs, whether these are professional or personal. The Internet offers users fast access to social contacts such as online chat groups and discussion lists, helping us to make connections with others. Online communities are being increasingly used by teachers for professional support, guidance and inspiration. These are often organised around subject areas and offer teachers opportunities to develop both personally and professionally. Online communities may present as a source of continuous professional development for teachers as they are able to deliver authentic and personalised opportunities for learning. This paper will present the findings of a study that was conducted on three online communities for teachers. It will explore the nature of online community membership and offer some conclusions regarding their potential as a source of professional learning for teachers.     

Sustainability of educational change: The role of social geographies

The paper examines the conceptual and strategicrole of social geographies in contributing toor undermining sustainable school improvement.It develops a four-fold definition ofsustainability as involving improvement overtime, within available or achievable resourcesthat does not impact negatively on thesurrounding environment and that promotesecological diversity and capacity more widely.A conceptual framework of social geographies isdeveloped along with its implications forsustainability. This analysis is then appliedto a further framework of seven strategicgeographies of educational change whichdeliberately try to arrange, order or exploitspace in particular ways to secure schoolchange. These are market geographies, networkgeographies, virtual geographies, geographiesof scaling up, standardized geographies,differential geographies and geographies ofsocial movements. The paper concludes byreviewing the other contributions to the volumeon the theme of social geographies ofeducational change, and describes the SpencerFoundation funded conference from which theysprang.