School improvement at the next level of work: the struggle for collective agency in a school facing adversity

IF 2.5 2区 教育学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
Elizabeth Zumpe
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Abstract

School improvement depends, fundamentally, upon collective agency—a group capability to work productively together and solve problems. Unfortunately, many schools operate in contexts of adversity that can pose considerable challenges with developing collective agency. Schools serving high-poverty communities of color often face chronic resource shortages, difficulties to reach their students, and negative reputations. Research has shown how such experiences of adversity can invite destructive tendencies that interfere with collective agency—including defensiveness, learned helplessness, and fragmenting conflict. However, prevailing approaches to researching school improvement have obscured insight into how collective agency may develop in adverse contexts. To study this, this paper draws on over 70 hours of participant observation and more than 50 reflective conversations conducted over 1 year with a Californian middle school facing adversity. Drawing on literature about group development and work teams, the article traces interaction patterns in three work groups, including one I led. The study finds clear efforts to develop collective agency at times, but it is a fragile emergence. Across all groups, collective agency becomes enabled when initiative to address a problem combines with manageable tasks, simple solutions, and group affirmation. However, these processes do not enable groups to fully address the complex problems they face, leaving groups vulnerable to recurrent experiences of inefficacy and overwhelm that quash collective agency. The findings offer a new understanding of school improvement amid adversity as a struggle to improve at “the next level of work,” calling for reforms designed to sustain a foundation of collective agency.

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在下一个工作层面改进学校工作:在面临逆境的学校中争取集体代理权
从根本上说,学校的进步取决于集体能动性--一种共同卓有成效地工作和解决问题的集体能力。不幸的是,许多学校都处于逆境之中,这对发展集体能动性构成了巨大挑战。服务于有色人种贫困社区的学校往往面临着长期的资源短缺、学生就学困难以及负面声誉等问题。研究表明,这种逆境经历会引发破坏性倾向,干扰集体能动性--包括防御性、习得性无助和碎片化冲突。然而,研究学校改进的主流方法却忽略了对逆境中如何发展集体能动性的洞察。为了对此进行研究,本文利用了 70 多个小时的参与观察和 50 多次反思性对话,这些观察和对话是在加利福尼亚一所面临逆境的中学进行的,历时一年。文章借鉴了有关小组发展和工作团队的文献,追踪了三个工作小组的互动模式,其中包括我领导的一个小组。研究发现,在发展集体能动性方面,有时会有明显的努力,但这种努力是脆弱的。在所有小组中,当解决问题的主动性与可管理的任务、简单的解决方案和小组的肯定相结合时,集体能动性就会得到发挥。然而,这些过程并不能使群体完全解决他们所面临的复杂问题,从而使群体容易反复经历低效和不堪重负,从而削弱集体能动性。研究结果使我们对逆境中的学校改进有了新的认识,即努力改进 "下一级工作",呼吁进行旨在维持集体能动性基础的改革。
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来源期刊
Journal of Educational Change
Journal of Educational Change EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
5.80
自引率
7.10%
发文量
23
期刊介绍: The Journal of Educational Change is an international, professionally refereed, state-of-the-art scholarly journal, reflecting the most important ideas and evidence of educational change. The journal brings together some of the most influential thinkers and writers as well as emerging scholars on educational change. It deals with issues like educational innovation, reform and restructuring, school improvement and effectiveness, culture-building, inspection, school-review, and change management. It examines why some people resist change and what their resistance means. It looks at how men and women, older teachers and younger teachers, students, parents and others experience change differently. It looks at the positive aspects of change but does not hesitate to raise uncomfortable questions about many aspects of educational change either. It looks critically and controversially at the social, economic, cultural and political forces that are driving educational change. The Journal of Educational Change welcomes and supports contributions from a range of disciplines, including history, psychology, political science, sociology, anthropology, philosophy and administrative and organizational theory, and from a broad spectrum of methodologies including quantitative and qualitative approaches, documentary study, action research and conceptual development. School leaders, system administrators, teacher leaders, consultants, facilitators, educational researchers, staff developers and change agents of all kinds will find this journal an indispensable resource for guiding them to both classic and cutting-edge understandings of educational change. No other journal provides such comprehensive coverage of the field of educational change.
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