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Research Use as Learning: The Case of Fundamental Change in School District Central Offices:

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TLDR
This article found that central office administrators varied in their appropriation of five research-based ideas between and somewhat within districts, and that prior knowledge and assistance from intermediary organizations proved necessary but not sufficient to support appropriation absent internal leaders who taught others how to use the research.
Abstract
Districts nationwide have launched efforts to fundamentally change their central offices to support improved teaching and learning for all students and are turning to research for help. The research provides promising guides but is challenging to use. What happens when central offices try? We explored that question in six districts using sociocultural learning theory to analyze 124 interviews, 499.25 observation hours, and approximately 300 documents. We found that central office administrators varied in their appropriation of five research-based ideas between and somewhat within districts. Prior knowledge and assistance from intermediary organizations proved necessary but not sufficient to support appropriation absent internal leaders who taught others how to use the research. These findings elaborate research use as a learning process that may require particular, intensive internal leadership.

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How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

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The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
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TL;DR: In this article, the effects of nine district characteristics on student achievement, explored the conditions that mediated the effect of such characteristics and contributed to understandings about the role school-level leaders play in district efforts to improve achievement.
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Supporting Principal Supervisors: What Really Matters?.

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Beyond Compliance: Assessing Administrators’ Commitment to Comprehensive School Counseling:

TL;DR: The New York State Education Department recently passed legislation that requires school districts to implement a programmatic, data-driven approach to school counseling as discussed by the authors, and this change moves the stat...
References
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Book

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation

TL;DR: This work has shown that legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice is not confined to midwives, tailors, quartermasters, butchers, non-drinking alcoholics and the like.
Book ChapterDOI

The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
Book

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity

TL;DR: Identity in practice, modes of belonging, participation and non-participation, and learning communities: a guide to understanding identity in practice.
Journal ArticleDOI

Situated Cognition and the Culture of Learning

TL;DR: Collins, Brown, and Newman as mentioned in this paper argue that knowledge is situated, being in part a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used, and propose cognitive apprenticeship as an alternative to conventional practices.
Book

Qualitative research & evaluation methods

TL;DR: In this paper, conceptual issues and themes on qualitative research and evaluaton methods including: qualitative data, triangulated inquiry, qualitative inquiry, constructivism, constructionism, complexity (chaos) theory, qualitative designs and data collection, fieldwork strategies, interviewing, tape-recording, ethical issues, analysis, interpretation and reporting, observations vs. perceived impacts and utilisation-focused evaluation reporting.
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