The basic professional knowledge of teachers and
suborganizational transformation processes of external pressure?
Ass. Prof. Ph.d. Jens H. Lund, Docent, Ph.d. Steen Juul Hansen, Ass. Prof. Peter Hougaard Madsen
Via University College, Dep. of Teacher Education, Denmark
Agenda
• Focus
• Research question
• Categories of knowledge
• Why?
• Methods
• Provisional results
• A model as frame for actions
Model 1. Research Focus
Reseach question
Which practices in the formal fora on the
suborganizational level in schools can secure and support that basic professional knowledge of
teachers plays a central role when external
pressure are transformed in these fora?
Type Characteristics Function
1. Global knowledge - Educational research
Empirical
Systematic
Generalized globally
De-contextual
Inspiring – calling for processes of contextualizing and ‘translation’ to local situation and conditions
2. Local knowledge - knowledge of local experiences
Empirical and closely connected to the single school/teacher, a concrete group of pupils etc.
Based on and connected to experiences, traditions, routines
Unsystematic as well as systematic
Informing the concrete and single action – knowledge of handling the situation
3. Basic professional knowledge
Theoretical, philosophical Delivers professional criteria and thereby potential critique.
Offers categories, systemization, analytical distance, perspectives, and contributes to basic professional reflections, expands approaches
3.1 Pedagogical
Aiming at the question of the education of the child,purpose of the school with sub-categories like:
Ideal of bildung
View of human/child’s nature
View of society/school in society
Ethics, values
View of knowledge
3.2 Didactical
Concerning teaching and learning and the sub-categories: Aim
Content
Methods
Evaluation
Learning processes
The qualifications and potentials of the pupils
Frames/ressources
4. None categorized knowledge?
Circular?
Private knowledge?
• ?
Ball (2012)
Ball (2012: 10-11):
Policy enactment (and any other kind of external pressure, JHL) is inflected by competing sets of values and ethics, but perhaps surprisingly, certainly surprisingly to us, there is a dearth of values-talk in our data. (..) values and principles (..) are glimsed fleetingly asides in the interview. (..)
This version of effectiveness works within a disciplinary infrastructure of targets, benchmarks, league tables, averages and inspections that work to overwhelm or displace values and principles. (..) It is often the case that
ethical-democratic concerns come into play only weakly over and against and
within the interpretation and enactment of policy.
The situation that Ball descripes we recognize in our data
• Values and principles constitutionalized in the basic professional knowledge are marginalized
• Concious orientation towards knowledge, use
and construction of knowledge in practice is a
possible strategy towards professionalization
Methods
• Action research project
• At one school – so far…
• Aug. 2014 – aug. 2017
• Observations
• Interview
• Participant logs
• Research logs
• Analyzing documents
• Developing actions
• Based on Danish empirical studies:
• Hansen, S. J. (2009): Bureaukrati, faglige metoder eller tommelfingerregler, AU
• Lund, Jens H. (2012): Nye styringsformer i folkeskolen: ph.d.-afhandling, AU/IUP
• Schmidt, C (2013): Vidensudveksling og daginstitutionsarbejde sat på manual, Frydenlund, p. 185-204
Provisional results
• The unsystematic ‘local’ knowledge is nearly totally dominant.
• If basic professional knowledge is somehow playing a role it happens by coincidence.
• If basic professional knowledge is involved, it often appears in linguistic disguise: basic professional knowledge are hidden in or expressed via everyday life language. We also see examples where basic professional knowledge and arguments are not recognized as such by the teachers themselves.
• Global knowledge is very seldom invited – there is no established practice for this orientation
• A drift toward routinization of (Berger/Luckmann) teaching is
transforming practice in the formal fora in a very dominant
way
Categories of organizational strategies identified in Ontario -a pilot study, May 2015
Based only on three interviews with school leaders:
1. An exstrem case
•
Internal organizational procedures
•
Competences
•
External cooperation
Dr. Eric Jackmann Institute of Child Study Laboratory School, interview: VP Richard Messina http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/ics/Laboratory_School/index.html
2. Focus on curriculum
•
Frames for teamplanning – pedagogical and didactical agendas
Secord Primary School, interview: P. Lisa Moser http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/secord/Home.aspx
3. Focus on teacher competences
•
Leader feed back
•
Cooperation, reflection
George Webster Elementary School, interview, P. Pividor Kimberley http://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/georgewebster/home.aspx