School Professional Community Research Articles

Social pedagogy in a human rights context: Lessons from primary schools in Iceland

The profession of social pedagogues (SPs) in Iceland provides services for a diverse group of people, particularly disabled people of all ages within variety of community settings with inclusive and rights-based practices as their primary professional responsibility. Social pedagogues (SPs) in Iceland have been part of the primary school professional community since the 1974 law on compulsory education opened up the schools for disabled children. This article is based on the school part of an ongoing study which focuses on the role, status and professional developmental needs of SPs in Iceland within their diverse work settings in light of the rights-based demands made by the CRPD. The aim of the school part is to explore, describe and interpret the views and understandings of SPs about the social pedagogue as a contributing actor within inclusive primary schools in Iceland. The data is derived from two main sources; the participants provided texts from a half-open questionnaire and focus group interviews. The analysis is performed with the help of the expansive learning theory within the cultural-historical activity theory framework (CHAT). The findings indicate a large mismatch between policy ideals, the SPs’ professional human-rights based values and the reality SPs face within inclusive schools. Thus, we argue that it is important to acknowledge and utilise the SPs professional expertise embedded in the human rights approach and their innovative practices as part of transformative expansive learning culture and collective change effort in accordance with Article 24 in the CRPD.

Immortality of prejudice in striving Ubuntu: Case studies of community managed schools in Nepal

The immortality of prejudice after the school management transfer has not been judged. This makes communities to take responsibility for schools further by compelling the government to mandate amendments of Community Managed Schools (CMS) Directives. The purpose was to explore the CMS enduring Ubuntu against immorality of prejudice, through participation and involvement. Three community schools were selected. Interviews were conducted with school professional community. Data triangulation was done for validation. The results suggest that management transfer of public schools was mainly initiated in deprived rural areas. Most government teachers are appointed to urban areas, while the community members were mostly farmers and street vendors. The uneven distribution of government teachers has resulted in inequality. The School Management Committees are given the authority to appoint teachers by the CMS Directives, but the Educational Act guards against this. Teachers were appointed by SMCs despite the fact that the Act does not allow this. Key words: Prejudice in educational settings, Ubuntu, community schools, school management, inequality and injustice in education, community action, social values, social marginalization, social stigma, Nepal.

Managing Community: Professional Community in Charter Schools Operated by Educational Management Organizations

This article examines ways in which entities external to schools, in this case for-profit educational management organizations (EMOs), can influence development of school professional community. Drawing on case studies of six charter schools operated by three EMOs, we examine the five elements of professional community described by Kruse, Louis, and Bryk; supports and barriers to development of professional community; and the role of EMOs in influencing supports and barriers. We found that in these cases, EMO staff influenced professional community in important ways through the design of their programs (including structures they set up for use of time and staffing) and their informal relationships with schools (including their roles as “cheerleaders,” constructive critics, flexible keepers of the model, and reliable managers). The findings of this exploratory study provide a basis for future research on how external entities such as EMOs can influence professional community.

Building school capacity through professional development: conceptual and empirical considerations

Situates current research on professional development within an organizational perspective. Offers a framework for the study of professional development, and proposes that key factors that affect student achievement be conceptualized as school capacity. Argues that increases in school capacity will lead to gains in student achievement, and that professional development should, therefore, be designed to enhance the following three dimensions of capacity. First, school capacity includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions of individual staff members. Second, the diverse human and technical resources of a school need to be put to use in an organized, collective enterprise termed school professional community. Finally, a school’s capacity is enhanced when its programs for student and staff learning are coherent, focused, and sustained. To illustrate comprehensive professional development that addresses all aspects of school capacity, describes one school from a current study.

Does Professional Community Affect the Classroom? Teachers' Work and Student Experiences in Restructuring Schools

School reform efforts have focused on the development of professionally enriching work groups for teachers as a vehicle for improving student achievement. This study examines the impact of school professional community on the intellectual quality of student performance (assessed using authentic measures) and on two dimensions of classroom organization, the technical (measured as authentic pedagogy) and the social (measured as social support for achievement). Employing quantitative (multilevel) and qualitative analytic methods, we show that in 24 nationally selected, restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools professional community is strongly associated with these dimensions of classroom organization. Both professional community and social support for achievement have a positive relationship to student performance, but the strength of their association with authentic pedagogy accounts for that effect.