Examining organizational learning in schools: The role of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning

Monica Higgins,Amy Fowler,Rebecca Holcombe,Ann Ishimaru

doi:10.1007/s10833-011-9167-9

Abstract

This study draws upon theory and methods from the field of organizational behavior to examine organizational learning (OL) in the context of a large urban US school district. We build upon prior literature on OL from the field of organizational behavior to introduce and validate three subscales that assess key dimensions of organizational learning that build upon and extend prior education research: psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Data from 941 teachers across 60 schools in this urban district suggest that organizational learning is an underlying condition which is expressed by teacher perceptions of subfactors of psychological safety, experimentation, and leadership that reinforces learning. Implications for adopting the conceptual framework and methods employed in this research for studying organizational learning and school change are discussed.

Highlights

In response to the No Child Left Behind Act, many schools focused their efforts on implementing new programs to help them reach performance goals outlined by their states’ accountability systems
We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to assess whether the three target subscales (PS, EXP, and leadership that reinforces learning (LTRL)) represent constructs that are captured by the second-order factor of organizational learning
By taking a conceptually integrated stance and empirically testing an organizational learning instrument in a large urban district, this research contributes to our knowledge of how, from the perspective of teachers, organizational learning is manifest at a school site

Summary

Introduction

In response to the No Child Left Behind Act, many schools focused their efforts on implementing new programs to help them reach performance goals outlined by their states’ accountability systems. Extensive research has looked at “absorptive capacity” which refers to an individual’s or organization’s capacity to recognize the value of new kinds of information absorbing it into existing habits of minds or ways of organizing (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990). Overall, this has been a largely cognitive perspective on organizational learning that has aimed to understand how people think about complex problems, solve them, and in addition, avoid errors (e.g., Argyris & Schon, 1996). The emphasis in this stream of work has been on the social processes of learning in organizations (see Knapp, 2008, for a review)

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Conclusion