Networking for School Turnaround: Understanding the Role of Multiple External Actors in China

• In Event: Saturday Roundtable Session 1:15 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Partnerships, Curricular Innovations, and Professional Learning Strategies for School Improvement (Table 28)

Abstract

Networking has been recognized as a powerful strategy for school turnaround. However, most studies focus on single external actors’ (particularly governments’) role in promoting school turnaround, paying less attention to multiple external actors’ networking with a turnaround school. With specific reference to a junior secondary school in Shanghai, China, this qualitative empirical study examines the complexity of external actors and their role in collaborative school turnaround. Drawing on documentary, observational, and interview data, this study found that three types of external actors, including universities, private enterprises, and public institutions, manifested three patterns of interactions with the school – direction leader, solution provider, and method instructor – each indicating their different approaches towards school turnaround and different power relations with the collaborating school.

Author

• Yuan Tao, Shanghai Normal University