The Authority of Artifacts in Educational Innovation: The Case of the Educational Care and Support File in Flanders (Belgium)

• In Event: 26.080 - Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: 26.080-8 - Teachers and Teaching

Abstract

For a long time, research on educational innovation has treated artifacts merely in terms of their function or symbolic value, thus ignoring or minimizing their active role in understanding schools’ implementation practices. In this study, we aim to unravel the authority of artifacts in processes of educational innovation using a neo-institutional lens. More specifically, we focus on the implementation of the Educational Care and Support-file, an artifact developed to transfer information on pupils’ educational needs as they move from primary to secondary schools. Drawing on data from an artifact analysis and semi-structured interviews in two primary and two secondary schools, this study reports on how this artifact acquired its authority from coercive, normative, and mimetic institutional pressures.

Authors

• Virginie Marz, University of Amsterdam

• Karen Vermeir, University of Leuven

• Geert Kelchtermans, University of Leuven