Professional Learning Networks as Lifelines for Professional Development in an Agile and Flexible Environment

• In Event: 61.043 - Structured Poster Session: The Role of School Leadership for Sustainable Professional Learning Networks

Abstract

Objectives
Recent approaches are increasingly pursuing network strategies to connect individual schools and create new possibilities of interorganizational PLNs. However, as professionalization processes are increasingly linked to other organizations, sometimes in competing settings, there is potential for conflict or new forms of leadership. Leadership insights that view personnel development as an internal organizational measure are limited in their effectiveness. Furthermore, new networking opportunities will have little impact if no coherent frameworks are created in the organization. Enabling a transfer of the acquired knowledge into the established structures of the individual school must be structured and systematically facilitated (see Kotter 2012). This raises the question as to what new forms of leadership are needed and what frameworks are sustainable for individual schools in a networked context. For Austria, the introduction of PLNs also means a pragmatic change in the continuing education and training landscape. Accordingly school systems must address the shift from professional development to professional learning (vgl. Easton 2008; Biesta 2012). This paper focuses on these new structures in Austria as well as related school management actions.

Methods and data sources
The study followed a qualitative design including semi-structured expert interviews and group discussions. The expert interviews were conducted with school leaders and in-service trainers, while group discussions were done with participants of PLNs. The results were analyzed on the one hand (interviews) using a deductive-inductive analysis based on categories (see Mayring 2010) and on the other hand (group discussions) with an abductive analysis (see Przyborski 2004).

Results and conclusions
Results indicate a lack of collaboration, especially amongst the in-service trainers and school leaders. Further, different agendas between PLNs and schools can cause conflicting situations for PLN members. Based on these findings we will discuss new sustainable ways of professional learning within PLNs.

Scientific or scholarly significance
This paper shows how collaboration in networks is not self-evident and how agenda’s between PLNs and schools need to be aligned to be able to fulfil the promise of sustainable professional learning in PLNs.

Authors

• Livia Anna Julia Roessler, University of Innsbruck

• Evi Agostini, University of Vienna