Building Communities and Collaborative Cultures

2022 ◽  
pp. 145-153
Author(s):  
Miha Škerlavaj
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Cultures

Towards Partnerships for Student Success

2018 ◽  
pp. 140-156
Author(s):  
Lynn H. Irwin ◽  
Ellen H. Reames
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Data Use ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
Reading Scores ◽  
Collaborative Partnerships ◽  
Learning Partnerships ◽  
Student Reading ◽  
Collaborative Cultures ◽  
Common Formative Assessment

This case study project demonstrated the power of teachers partnering with one another in a collaborative manner in an effort to increase student reading readiness. These collaborative partnerships created a new way of thinking about analyzing student reading data. One of the important outcomes was the creation of a common formative assessment system that was used throughout the school. A second outcome was the significant increase in student reading scores. A third outcome was the significant improvement in school culture during the implementation of this change project. All outcomes exemplified how schools can embrace change and make positive strides towards increasing student success and successfully strengthen collaborative cultures and learning partnerships through data use.

Leading in the connected era

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saul Berman ◽  
Peter Korsten
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Rapid Change ◽  
Superior Performance ◽  
Institutional Diversity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Collaborative Cultures ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Future Plans

Purpose – Leaders are recognizing that the current connected era is fundamentally changing how customers, employees and partners engage, according to an IBM survey of CEOs and senior public sector leaders from around the globe. Design/methodology/approach – Between September 2011 and January 2012, IBM leaders met face to face with leaders worldwide to better understand their future plans and challenges in an increasingly connected economy. The CEOs surveyed lead organizations of different sizes in 64 countries and 18 industries The analysis also sought to understand differences between responses of CEOs in financially outperforming organizations and those in underperforming organizations. Findings – Key survey findings include: CEOs are creating more open and collaborative cultures – encouraging employees to connect, learn from each other and thrive in a world of rapid change; the emphasis on openness and collaboration is even higher among outperforming organizations; to engage customers as individuals, CEOs are investing in customer insights more than any other functional area; and extensive partnering is providing the edge CEOs need to take on radical innovation. Practical implications – Three suggested initiatives to promote superior performance are: embrace connectivity and openness; engage customers as individuals; and amplify innovation with partnerships. Originality/value – Explains that to create greater value, CEOs must take advantage of newly enabled connections with and among employees, customers and partners. Shows that to lead in this unfamiliar territory amid constant change, CEOs will need to learn from their own networks. They will need to assemble those networks like portfolios – with generational, geographic, institutional diversity. Then, they will need to help their organizations do the same.

scholarly journals Courage, commitment and collaboration : notions of leadership in the New Zealand ECE 'Centres of Innovation'

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kate Thornton
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Learning Communities ◽  
Learning Community ◽  
Teacher Leadership ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Shared Vision ◽  
Regular Reflection ◽  
Leadership Positions ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Collaborative Cultures

<p>Historically there has been a lack of recognition for, and research into, leadership in the New Zealand early childhood education sector. The Centres of Innovation (COI) programme provides a unique opportunity for research into effective leadership in quality services that can contribute to our knowledge and understanding of leadership in the sector as a whole. This study, exploring how leadership is defined and enacted in the COI, found that although not all educators were comfortable with being identified as leaders, individuals and the centres as a whole were demonstrating leadership in ways that fitted their service contexts. Leadership across the COI was characterised by courage, commitment and collaboration. The innovative approaches of the COI appear to be due in no small part to the collaborative centre cultures in which innovation is encouraged, educators feel valued and supported, and there is regular reflection and a commitment to continuous improvement . Those in leadership positions in the COI have promoted these collaborative cultures and through their example teacher leadership has been encouraged. The COI not only provide case studies of educative leadership (Meade, 2003a) but also case studies of learning communities. These learning communities include researchers and members of the wider community as well as the educators. Leadership as defined and enacted in the COI is a shared endeavour and this model of working collaboratively in a learning community towards a shared vision is one that the rest of the sector can learn from.</p>

scholarly journals Leading new, deeper forms of collaborative cultures: Questions and pathways

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cecilia Azorín ◽  
Michael Fullan
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Human Development ◽  
System Change ◽  
Human Potential ◽  
System Improvement ◽  
Collaborative Cultures

AbstractThe pandemic has made deeper problems more transparent and has stimulated many to realize that there may be an opportunity over the next period to pursue much needed innovations in learning. In this essay we describe the ways in which the pandemic has provided the conditions for new human development that joins two powerful forces: the pulsar model which elevates human potential with respect to student learning, and new, deeper forms of collaboration that have long eluded those interested in system change. In this article we show how ‘spirit work’ and collaboration can combine to develop schools systems that are essential for coping with the new post-pandemic conditions facing humanity. We also identify spinoff opportunities arising from the pandemic, and a corresponding pressure that could generate more widespread system improvement designed to improve learning for all, including advances in both equity and excellence.

scholarly journals Developing Safety Cultures in Amtrak and WMATA

2012 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Buckley ◽  
Keith Marfione ◽  
Hannah Putman
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Promising Practices ◽  
Organizational Safety ◽  
And Behaviors ◽  
Safety Cultures ◽  
Collaborative Cultures

Amtrak and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) have made recent efforts to improve their organizational safety cultures. By transforming their values and behaviors, these transportation organizations sought to reduce employee and passenger accidents and injuries, as well as build more collaborative cultures. This paper illustrates case studies of Amtrak and WMATA and examines the strategies and promising practices that these organizations employed to improve their safety cultures.

Teachers’ Opportunities to Learn through Collaboration over Time: A Case Study of Math Teacher Teams in Schools under Pressure to Improve

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-40
Author(s):  
Hayley Weddle
Keyword(s):  
Deep Learning ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Math Instruction ◽  
Collective Work ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Collaborative Cultures ◽  
High Depth ◽  
Over Time

Background/Context While current research provides key insights about successful collaboration in which teachers experience deep learning and practice change, few studies analyze the content of teachers’ collaborative conversations about instruction. Even fewer explore how the content of collaborative conversations evolves over time, making it difficult to understand the impact of shifting policies, priorities, and personnel on teachers’ collective work. Purpose and Research Questions To explore teachers’ opportunities to learn through collaboration, I draw on the following research questions: How does the depth of teachers’ opportunities to learn from collaborative conversations evolve over time? In what ways do contextual factors (e.g., personnel, tools, leadership expectations, coaching) influence these opportunities to learn through collaboration? Participants This study is situated in two urban middle schools under significant pressure to improve student achievement. I selected one grade-level math team from each school, analyzing their conversations taking place during collaboration meetings. Research Design To better understand teachers’ collaborative learning, I rely on qualitative case study methods. Data collected include interviews and observations of two teacher collaboration groups over four years. I use Horn and colleagues’ (2017) taxonomy of teachers’ opportunities to learn in conjunction with cultural historical activity theory (Cole & Engeström, 2007) to examine teachers’ collective learning over time as this process unfolds in context. Findings/Results Across both groups, expectations from leadership to improve school performance shaped teachers’ opportunities to learn, as did the presence of teachers whose beliefs about math instruction foregrounded student thinking and exploration. Findings demonstrated that for one team, fluctuations in depth of learning also depended on the agendas and protocols used to frame collective work. For the second team, depth of learning opportunities was connected to shifts in personnel and group norms over time. For both teams, high-depth conversations represented no more than a third of the meetings observed in each year, reflecting the complexity of developing effective collaborative cultures supporting deep learning. Conclusions/Recommendations While high-depth opportunities to learn (OTLs) were infrequent for both teams, the reasons for this scarcity were shaped by each team's context. Leaders hoping to develop collaborative cultures with richer teacher learning opportunities should consider multiple factors shaping OTLs, including collaborative team norms, teachers’ beliefs about math instruction, protocols guiding discussions, and the role of accountability pressures in shaping expectations for collective work.

Review of transforming teamwork: Cultivating collaborative cultures.

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-403
Author(s):  
Douglas H. Fernald
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Cultures

scholarly journals Action Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Gibson-Langford
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Significant Risk ◽  
World Views ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Craft Knowledge ◽  
Collaborative Cultures

Teachers need to rigorously and systematically reflect on their practice and such reflection can be most effective within collaborative cultures. Within the context of action research, centred on how literature can enrich students’ world views, this paper offers an observation on collaboration as intense professional enrichment. The action research gave clear evidence that literature can shape and enrich boys’ understandings of masculinities. It also highlighted the power of collaboration in learning and teaching. As a consequence of this research, the teacher librarian and the Head of English developed trust and appreciation of each others’ craft knowledge and engaged in significant risk-taking, through creating, sharing and using their knowledge.

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