From Actions to Interactions: The Role of Professional Networks in Reform Sustainability

• In Event: Collaboration in Reform Implementation and Sustainability

Abstract

Powerful professional networks in which expertise and knowledge are developed and shared with one another, are often cited as a main contributing factor to successful educational reform. However, there is still little systematic research on how teachers’ professional networks (both school internal/external) can be an effective way to build sustainable change within school organizations. This paper aims to study the role professional networks fulfill within the sustainability of educational change initiatives. Specifically,we focus on the structural characteristics of those networks (network configuration) and the role individual actors (agency/position/expertise) fulfill within those networks. We combined a meta-ethnography with focus groups and semi-structured interviews, and developed an analytic model in which the relationship between teachers’ professional networks and reform sustainability is presented.

Authors

• Virginie Marz, Université Catholique de Louvain

• Lisa Gaikhorst, University of Amsterdam

• Rob Mioch, University of Amsterdam

• Femke Geijsel, Radboud University Nijmegen