Making connections: From Collaborative Improvement to a Networked Learning System?
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Abstract
Historically change efforts emerging from the school effectiveness and improvement movements have largely focused on within-school structures and processes placing the school as the key unit of analysis. More recently efforts have moved towards systematic attempts to move knowledge and expertise around education systems through networks and school-to-school collaboration focused on promoting educational equity. These within- school and between-school efforts often operate in isolation from each other.
Beyond-school approaches to improvement have also increasingly become recognised as key to educational and social change. This has involved partnership working and place-based initiatives with a focus on multi agency, community and economic development perspectives particularly in communities facing significant challenges. However, at best these efforts have only been weakly connected to school improvement endeavours. This paper argues that the disconnection and a lack of synergy between these within, between and beyond perspectives has limited the potential for improvements and that conceptualising the challenge through the prism of Networked Learning Systems focusing on working across diverse boundaries, using evidence and inquiry to inform developments would unlock the latent potential so that all children could achieve their full potential.
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References
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