Conference Agenda

Under the right circumstances, collaborative professionalism (CP) in education that combines solidarity of relationships with solidity of structures and protocols to deepen those relationships can lead to increased innovation and teacher renewal (Lieberman, Campbell & Yashkina, 2018; Hargreaves and O’Connor, 2018; Revai, 2020). In this sense, CP is about the nature of networked relationships between and beyond schools. Drawing on empirical and policy-based research, this symposium considers how to facilitate sustainable CP and how it can contribute to teacher renewal and development beyond the places and the periods where CP originally occurred.

The symposium will explore these essential questions about collaborative professionalism by bringing together studies of school-to-school collaboration in the context of an East African country, of the composition of relationships inside and outside innovative school teams in Canada, and, in a European country, of what happens to “seconded” teachers who spend time away from schools working on system innovations and improvements, how collaborative professionalism develops and the resulting professional capital accrued while away from school, and the impact once they return back to school and classroom-based assignments. It will close with reflective remarks and guided discussion led by a prominent scholar in the field of collaborative professionalism.

Policy focus:

In 2022-2023, The LEGO Foundation funded an international group of school networks to support and promote play-based learning for vulnerable and marginalized young people in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using some of this research and development funding, a University of Ottawa team developed a network of 41 schools across Canada to develop play-based learning initiatives for marginalized students in the middle years and network them together to deepen their practice. A member of the university team along with a partner from one of the participating school districts have developed a framework for educators within the network and elsewhere to reflect on and create indicators for sustainable network-based innovation.

Theoretical Framework:

The design of the reflective framework is based on Hargreaves & Fink’s (2006, 2022) widely cited seven principles of sustainable leadership and innovation, and on research on collaborative professionalism conducted by one of the authors, as well as by others (Campbell, 2016).

Focus:

This paper briefly outlines the seven principles of sustainable collaborative professionalism (depth, endurance, breadth, diversity, environmental impact, energy renewal and conservation) and concentrates in detail on three of them – breadth, diversity & environmental impact on other groups and priorities. Drawing on case studies of 12 of the 41 schools, it examines:

- the sustainability or non-sustainability of team composition.

- the representativeness & diversity of the teams in terms of role, gender, and orientation to innovation.

- the impact of these factors on breadth of impact beyond the innovation teams in schools.

Methods and Data:

- Data from recorded and transcribed individual and focus group interviews of approximately 4 hours with the playful learning teams in each of 12 project schools, spread across 6 Canadian provinces.

- Application to and intersection with theories of collaborative professionalism and sustainable change resulting in a reflective framework of sustainable collaborative professionalism.

Results:

- An instrument that sets out the framework of 7 principles of collaborative professionalism

- Case examples and vignettes highlighting issues within each of the three chosen principles of sustainability.

Implications:

This framework will be usable by schools, districts, and even broader systems to guide and track initiatives related to sustainable collaborative professionalism.

Policy focus:

School-to-school collaboration in Kenya is at a relatively immature phase. There is dearth of empirical research undertaken on collaborative professionalism in schools and its impact and influence on student achievement (Wambua, 2022). Kenya’s education system still remains deeply marketised, the gap between the policy and practice is widening, and education is geared towards competition for positional goods. Top-down school governance approach has created more room for high social regulation and ignored the fact that no school system can effectively serve its students if its teachers do not share knowledge, skills, experiences, resources and ideas. Functional school networks de-privatize teaching thus widening opportunities for enhanced reflection in relation to the primary task at hand. Learning should always be seen as a negotiation, a discussion and a dialogue.

Objectives of the study:

The challenges facing teaching and learning appear to increase exponentially, and individualism and presentism seem not to achieve sustainable magic since the spirit of school networks is not much alive. As such, this study aims to:

i.) Establish how school networks can act as a nexus between policy and practice in Kenya’s school system;

ii.) Conceptualize the relationship between collaborative professionalism and student achievement.

Theoretical Framework:

This study is guided by the theory of action – which stresses on values, beliefs, and attitudes which are fundamental yet bypassed by educators (Robinson, 2018). Solving the wicked challenge of school improvement requires investigation into the material conditions supporting a particular behaviour – since expectations influence behaviour and behaviour influences performance.

Methods and data:

Mixed methods were applied in the study. 254 questionnaire responses – 157 responses from school teachers, 71 responses from school heads and 26 responses from system leaders – were obtained from across the country. For qualitative data, 23 participants were interviewed in total i.e 11 school teachers, 5 school heads and 7 education system leaders.

Results:

The findings showed a gap between research, policy and practice. Competition between and among schools is very common and misconceptions on school-to-school collaboration still linger among educators across the board. Teachers are still seen as “Kings and Queens” in their classrooms. They decide what to teach, how to teach and when to teach. The few schools that embraced collaborative teaching and learning witnessed increases in student achievement.

Key lessons for policy and practice:

- School-to-school collaboration leads to better learning outcomes. Threads and knots in school networks have a positive impact on student learning.

- De-privatized practice improves teacher confidence. Teachers develop personal and collective mastery of the content, and believe in their capabilities to produce a better learner.

- Clarity in policies and procedures. There is a great need to audit existing policies and legislate new ones in support of school-to-school collaboration.

- Schools should be seen as learning organizations. Teachers, school heads and system leaders should continuously improve their skills and bear in mind that cultures that work together hold the prospect of long-term impact that is not dependent on a few individuals but the whole team (Hargreaves & O’Connor, 2018).

Policy Focus:

In Ireland state funded support services providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers are staffed with teachers seconded from their schools annually for a maximum of five consecutive years. Policy legitimises temporary tenures by claiming that the professional development of these teachers will be enhanced by the secondment and that the schools to which they belong will benefit accordingly when the teachers return (Department of Education, 2018).

Problem:

There is a significant gap in what is known about the professional experiences and learning of teachers during these secondments. More specifically there has been no research capturing if and how the school gains from this on their return.

Aim:

This paper outlines the learning and experience acquired by teachers seconded to an Irish CPD service, how it shaped their identities and influenced their post-secondment careers.

Method:

Semi-structured interviews explored this from the perspective of primary and post-primary teachers previously seconded to the service who have since either returned to school or taken up other positions in the system.

Theoretical Framework:

Rooted in the field of career dynamics the theoretical framework maps out key stages navigated by these teachers while transitioning into, through and out of the service and onto their post-secondment career destinations.

Findings

The paper reveals

- extensive professional learning and capital acquired by these teachers during secondment

- the transformational impact of CPD practices such as lesson study and critical friendships

- how internal collaborative professionalism is nurtured across subject and sectoral boundaries through ‘expansive learning’ networks (Engeström, 2004)

- how shared desires for knowledge expansion and tolerance for healthy dissonance contribute to a collective intelligence

- how hybridity as teachers/teacher educators with daily proximity to both the profession and policymakers, spawns third space identities (Whitchurch, 2013) and dichotomous social capital to negotiate policy/practice boundaries

- how decisional capital is sharpened by the social capital built through intentional networking with external partners.

The paper exposes:

- paradoxical tension between the transformative impact of accrued professional capital and secondment’s capricious tenure conditions

- premature departures from the service to alternative education bodies offering career stability and platforms for long-term use of this professional capital

- a marked redundancy of such capital for teachers returning to school owing to accountability pressures, hurried classrooms and static cultures thus challenging assumptions that secondment benefits the school.

- a lack of career pathways for harnessing accrued capital and policy’s incognisance of conditions necessary for collaborative professionalism to thrive in schools.

- a ‘myopic view of teacher learning as solely attached to compliance ‘deliverables’ ignoring its deeper purpose within deliberate and collaborative efforts towards school improvement.

Contribution:

The paper yields:

- insights into the identities, work and learning of teacher educators working in the CPD sector.

- signature pedagogies required for reaching proficiency as a teacher educator

- recommendations for career pathways within CPD services and for teachers returning to school towards sustainable investment in accrued professional capital

- a transferable theoretical framework for exploring career transition into, through and out of a professional role