Improving Outcomes for Learners in Challenging Contexts Through Collaborative Learning and Inquiry in Schools and Communities in Scotland

• In Event: Atlantic Crossings: Research-Practice Partnerships in Europe and North and South America

Abstract

It has long been established that young people from more deprived communities/ families do less well educationally than their less deprived peers (Francis and Perry 2010, The Sutton Trust, 2009, Wedge and Prosser 1973). In addition to external contextual factors, school performance can also be influenced by practitioner and school leader qualities and factors (Holtappels 2008; Stoll et al 2012). Teacher quality/ effectiveness has been shown to be a crucial element in promoting positive educational outcomes irrespective of social/economic background (Hamre and Pianta 2005).

This paper reflects on the latest findings from a university-facilitated, multi organisation programme, the Network for Social and Educational Equity (NSEE), that uses cross-school and local authority collaborative learning to enhance learning and teaching and leadership to promote positive learner outcomes in communities in challenging contexts. The model is informed by a body of international research that confirms the value of school-to-school networking and cross-authority/district partnership work as key levers of innovation and system improvement (e.g. Hadfield and Jopling 2011, Author et al 2015; Author et al 2016; Ainscow et al 2016, Harris et al, 2005, Harrison et al 2008, Wohlstetter et al, 2003).
The NSEE programme aims to empower practitioners, school leaders, learners and those in their community to use data/ evidence to better understand their context and inform collaborative approaches to promote learning and tackle challenges in communities. Practitioners, through their collaborative enquiry can be activists, adopting research that is participatory, transformative and potentially challenges the power dynamics in their local systems. This enables teachers to play a more empowered role in tackling educational inequity; collaborating with other professionals and in partnership with the communities and families they serve.

The paper highlights that this collaborative model is particularly effective when partners operate within a supportive and equitable local strategic system; in this case, local authorities. These local systems with their key actors, scaffold development of effective collaborative arrangements and facilitate the sharing of resources, concepts and knowledge. Key intermediaries play a pivotal role in these local systems and help to promote leadership, resource allocation, knowledge transfer and a conducive, collaborative culture.
We also reflect on the ways that this model may enable schools and local authorities to strategically respond to challenges. Using the example of COVID-19, we examine how existing collaborative relationships developed in NSEE work better positioned schools to drive transformational change, through identifying challenges and develop shared strategies to address these.

Our findings also highlight that there are complex variations in such local systems that both challenge and facilitate those who work in this field. The findings highlight the challenge of balancing strategic and centralist local authority pressures with organic approaches that facilitate practitioner / community ownership and agency.

Authors

• Christopher James Chapman, University of Glasgow

• Kevin Lowden, University of Glasgow

• Stuart Hall, University of Glasgow

• Joanne Neary, University of Glasgow