Sustainability in School Networks: Agency and Structure

• In Event: Roundtable Session 90
  In Roundtable Session: School Networks and Sustainable Educational Change

Abstract

The School Network of the University of Amsterdam has actively worked for democratic school reform since its establishment in 1988. Over the years the network has maintained balance between continuity (structure) and change in schools and among participants. This sustainability is partly due to the strong bottom-up practice within the network, the implementation of democratic procedures and empowering participants’ voices (agency) (Veugelers & Zijlstra, 1995; 1998; 2002; 2005).
Networks are what Bauman (2003) would call liquid identities. They are fluid without a permanent structure. Networks are junctions of interrelationship that change permanently (Castells, 1998). In educational change theory networks have become an important instrument for making educational change dynamic and in empowering participants (Lieberman & Grolnick, 1996); Veugelers & O’ Hair, 2005). Networks are modern organisations that have to combine agency and structure (Giddens, 1999). For the sustainability of networks (Hargreaves, 2005) they need structure, for staying a network and not becoming a formal organization networks they need agency and change. Hargreaves and Shirley (2009) support the idea of networking as a strong tool in combining bottom-up processes and top-down strategies. It can support teachers’ voice and it can help schools to become part of a larger and more sustainable learning community.
What have we learned from networking in the past 20 years in our network of about 20 schools in the region Amsterdam in the Netherlands? In the paper we will use data of the five books in which participating teachers and school leaders in the network wrote about their professional life and educational change in and out the network. The books have been published in Dutch and are examples of teachers’ action research, case-studies and reflective professionalism.
A central focus in this network is within a focus on democratic education valuing diversity and linking both urban schools and elite schools. This linking is we think very important in the strongly segregated Dutch educational system.
We will focus on the following issues:
- The democratic leadership of the network
- Being part of more different formal and informal networks
- The network participants and other members of the schools
- Informal structures and meaningful issues
- Learning processes in networks
- The efforts to sustain diversity in the network in pedagogical visions and practices and in including both urban and elite schools in one network.
We will conclude the paper analysing the strong and weak points of networking for educational change.

Authors

• Wiel M. Veugelers, University of Amsterdam

• Henk Zijlstra, Werkplaats