Karin Rönnerman

Generating leading practices through professional learning

In this paper we show how practices of professional learning and practices of leading can be understood as related in ecologies of practices. We will present findings from an international empirical research project that directs us to the connectivity between professional learning and leading practices that emerged as ‘adventitious’, ‘opportune’ and ‘unexpected’ outcomes of long-term professional learning. We will show how practices (like professional learning) that exist in real situations shape other practices (like teaching and leading) when each creates enabling and constraining conditions for the others; they are mutually sustaining when together they form an ecology of practices existing in a dynamic ecological balance. Results build on established literature describing professional learning which customarily describes the characteristics, conditions and outcomes of effective professional development programmes. Specifically, our findings add a new dimension to the descriptions of the influences and accomplishments of professional learning – the development of teacher leading capacities.

Leading practice development: voices from the middle

Leadership has long been acknowledged as a significant dimension in effective school functioning and, indeed, school leaders can play a substantial role in professional development of staff. Here we have centred on the practices of leading as opposed to the qualities or characteristics of leaders, and this is emphasised by our use of the term ‘leading’ rather than ‘leadership’. In this article we explicitly focus on the leading practices of practitioners we describe as middle leaders, those with an acknowledged position of leadership but also a significant teaching role. Here we present data from a cross-national study of middle leaders in Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools that investigates the leading practices of middle leaders in educational contexts. The article draws on interviews with 22 teachers who have been given the responsibility for leading the practice development of their colleagues; these interviews give voice to this distinctive group of school leaders. In particular, the article draws on the theory of practice architectures to examine the social nature of the language, activities and relationships of leading ‘in the middle’, and the particular conditions or practice architectures that enable or constrain the development of middle leading practices in education. From this analysis we conclude with a definition of middle leading that includes positional, philosophical and practice dimensions. This could then be used to inform the domains of higher education, policy development and school education globally where middle leading practices are well established.

Action research: educational tools and the improvement of practice

Abstract One way to attain professionalism among teachers is through action-research. In this article, an in-service training project is presented and discussed. The project was, over a period of two-and-a-half years, carried out with pre-school work teams in an area of Göteborg, Sweden. During this time, each team met regularly and had access to an in-service leader. In the process, diary writing and observation were used, and together with this access to an in-service leader, they were seen as educational tools. Data was collected through interviews and surveys with open-ended questions from six of the work teams. Subsequently, the data was analysed through the action research-spiral and it was then seen that the educational tools were important for practitioners if they were to continue improvement at school. A key issue for the teachers seems to be how the educational tools and the actions are related to everyday practice.

The Value and Valuing of Continuing Professional Development: Current Dilemmas, Future Directions and the Case for Action Research.

This paper explores and challenges the rationale for current, mainstream approaches to teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) within schooling systems. Such approaches are significantly influenced by neoliberal and managerial pressures, evident in advocacy for generic, individualistic models of teacher learning, often focused on specific state-sanctioned domains. The paper draws upon a précis of recent action research literature, and empirical research from Sweden, to argue for an alternative paradigm, based on the practices and principles of participatory and collaborative action research. Action research is not presented as a simplistic ‘method’ which can be ‘applied’ regardless of context, but is explicitly focused on situated, specific, local sites. While more managerial and neoliberal practices can close down debates necessary for effecting real improvements in practice, evidence suggests action research, in its emancipatory iterations, enables a rich conception of educational practice which cannot be ‘managed’ into existence by a simplistic application of ‘what works.’

Participant knowledge and the meeting of practitioners and researchers

Abstract Swedish teachers are currently expected to become more involved in school improvement based on the findings of research. One of the main goals of this work is to develop practice in its own contexts. Teachers become involved in action and research or, in other words, the combination of practice and theory. A central issue in this work is whether professionals can develop practice in the light of their own knowledge and experience and, at the same time, in the light of theory and research. How can the two fields of knowledge (experience and science) be combined in practice? The article describes how action research has been developed in Sweden and how and why it has been used with pre-schoolteachers in the Göteborg area.

Facilitating school improvement: the problematic relationship between researchers and practitioners

Promoting local development in order to support school improvement is an important aspect of contemporary educational policy in Sweden. Recent state initiatives have sought to combine curriculum and teacher development. A common form of cooperation is facilitation, where academics support groups of teachers in their school projects. This article is based on an interview study on facilitation in the form of meetings between teachers, school managers and university researchers. The results show that several tensions concerning expectations and assumptions about facilitation are present in such meetings. Sometimes the parties’ expectations and conceptions are entirely contradictory. The study reveals that inadequate attention is paid to the need for dialogue and about the purpose and process of the cooperation at the outset of facilitation. Both dialogue and discourse are aspects of the meeting that require further development if this kind of cooperation is to succeed.

The Relation Between Tools used in Action research and the Zone of Proximal Development

This article describes a national school improvement project involving five compulsory schools for hard‐of‐hearing pupils, located in different parts of Sweden. Using action research, the teachers tried to change the communication patterns among the pupils by changing their own classroom practices, In this process the teachers tested and used different tools, such as writing, shadowing and facilitating each other, over a three‐year period. The purpose of this article is to examine how tools used in action research can be used to promote learning in relation to the concept of the zone of proximal development. The theoretical framework of the study is based on action research, as a collaborative way of creating knowledge, and on sociocultural learning theories. The basic assumption is that teachers, by using different tools, also challenge each other’s learning. The results show the importance of internalising tools that become owned by individuals or communities of practise. To be able to assume an active role in the zone of proximal development, and to produce knowledge collaboratively, a meaning‐making process was needed. It was found that this could be realised if the participants had an awareness of how to function as a critical friend among colleagues. Furthermore, the results revealed that, by using different tools, different voices can be heard. Three categories of voices were identified.

Pedagogy as human science, bildung and action research: Swedish and Dutch reflections

Action research can be understood as a complex interplay between local circumstances and local research traditions, embedded in their turn in local intellectual–philosophical traditions, national as well as international. Because of this interplay it is questionable whether it would be particularly fruitful to look for ‘typical local forms of action research’. In this article we will reflect on this issue, and we base our reflections on the Nordic tradition of bildung (bildning) and the continental European tradition of pedagogy as human science. As a departure for the reflections, illustrations will be used of what is actually happening with regard to action research in our own countries of the Netherlands and Sweden.

Facilitating a Culture of Relational Trust in School-Based Action Research: Recognising the Role of Middle Leaders.

Abstract Practices such as formal focused professional dialogue groups, coaching conversations, mentoring conversations and professional learning staff meetings have been taken up in schools and pre-schools as part of long-term action research and development activities to improve the learning and teaching practices. The development of relational trust has long been described in the literature as pivotal for the ongoing ‘success’ of such research and development in sites. In this article, we attempt to re-characterise relational trust as it is accounted for by participants in action research. We present data from a cross-nation study of middle leaders from Australian primary schools and Swedish pre-schools. Middle leaders are those teachers who ‘lead across’; they have both an acknowledged position of leadership or responsibility for the practice development of colleagues and a significant teaching role. The larger study examined the practices of middle leaders; and in this article we draw on interview data from one of the case-study sites that illustrate how colleagues in schools recognise the role middle leaders have for facilitating action research and teaching development. This article specifically presents excerpts from semi-structured interviews with 25 teachers, three principals, three executive teachers and three district consultants. Interviewees described how nourishing a culture of relational trust and mutual respect are critical features in the change endeavour. For them, the practices of the middle leader who facilitated the action research were instrumental in developing trust for teacher development. Analysis of participant accounts revealed five dimensions of trust: interpersonal trust, interactional trust, intersubjective trust, intellectual trust, and pragmatic trust.

Teachers’ professional development as enabling and constraining dialogue and meaning-making in Education for All

This article provides reflections on the articles in this special issue on Education for All. The paper draws on the Nordic educational tradition, especially the manner in which action research can function as an arena and means for teachers’ professional development. Both the cases presented and the theoretical perspectives used, educative praxis and practice architectures, are related to and discussed in terms of dialogue and collaborative meaning-making, which are understood as the core practices of the Nordic tradition of action research. By doing this, the scope of teachers’ professional action and development expands, and comes to encompass various personal and particularly political aspects, immanent to education practices. Thereby teachers’ professional practice and development, especially when it comes to Education for All, are to take place on arenas and within practices characterised by respect, reciprocity and shared responsibilities.