A Framework for Network Improvement Community Initiation

• In Event: 14.016 - Catalyzing a Social Structure for Educational Improvement: Initiating Networked Improvement Communities

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to articulate a framework that describes the process of networked improvement community initiation. The paper will locate the need for such a framework in the growing interest in the formation of networks in education that aim to address complex problems of practice (de Lima, 2010), following the recognition in other societal sectors that ameliorating complex problems require inter-organizational collaboration (Weber & Khademian, 2008). The framework is specific to one type of network – the Networked Improvement Community (NIC) model – given our belief that it represents a promising organizational form to purposefully coordinate research and practice and facilitate improvement work in education.

Development of the NIC Initiation Framework was motivated and inspired by three bodies of literature. First, we locate the development of the NIC model in the education field’s growing attention to the development of collaborative structures for research-practice partnerships. We review a number of current models including design-based implementation research (Penuel, et al., 2011); the Consortium on Chicago School Research model (Roderick, Easton & Sebring, 2009); and collective impact (Kania & Kramer, 2011). We then unpack the NIC model (Authors, 2011; 2013; Englebart, 1992; 2003) and how it is similar to and distinct from other research-practice partnerships. We round out the theoretical framework by drawing on theory and research from the public administration field that describes the process of inter-organizational network initiation (c.f. Provan & Kenis, 2008; Paquin & Howard-Grenville, 2013).

The framework was developed through the real time investigation of the initiation of four fledging NICs – including the three network cases included in the symposium – as well as our review of the formation experiences of more mature educational improvement networks (e.g. National Writing Project and Strive). Data sources included interviews with founding members of mature improvement networks (N=5), interviews and/or informal interactions with participants from the four fledgling NICs, and various forms of documentation produced by the networks (e.g. white papers, funding proposals, etc.). Guided by our theoretical framework, our inductive analysis of the data resulted in identification of five critical domains of network formation activity and a set of constitutive elements for each domain that define and specify the scope of activity in each domain.

Our framework is presented in a figure that depicts the conceptual relationship between the five domains of activity that we posit are essential to the formation of a NIC. The domains are organized into two concentric spheres of activity. At the center, three interrelated domains of activity form the core technology of a networked improvement community: (1)the theory of practice improvement, (2) the science of improvement, and (3) the analytic infrastructure. The fourth domain, network leadership, organization and operation, is depicted as a circle surrounding the NIC core technology, suggesting that the structure of the network centers around and is aligned with the core technology. Finally, the outer layer of the framework – domain 5: culture, norms and identity – refers to the more informal aspects of the network that emerge over time and support ongoing development and sustainability.

Authors

• Jennifer L. Russell, University of Pittsburgh

• Louis M. Gomez, University of California - Los Angeles

• Jonathan R. Dolle, WestEd