Schools learning from other schools: co-operation in a climate of competition

Abstract

In recent years policy makers have strengthened their belief that competition will raise standards. This paper describes what happened when a group of schools in one LEA took part in a school improvement project that supported them in learning from each other in a climate of competition. Issues that made a difference to teachers' readiness to engage with other schools included these: whether teachers are open about the possibility of learning from schools that are different from their own in terms of socio-economic factors, ethos and tradition; the importance of recontextualizing ideas that are ‘borrowed’; the need to restore teachers’ confidence in their own professional expertise and capacity to support the learning of other teachers. It proved important to identify issues that engaged with some fundamental aspects of teaching and learning and that were powerful enough to bring in other colleagues. The paper also explores the importance, in supporting the kind of change that is both collaborative and potentially transformative, of a pace and time-scale that allows teachers time to ‘get the question right’, to plan an appropriate intervention and to evaluate the progress that they have made.