Emerald Professional Learning Networks Series – serie

Professional learning networks (PLNs) have been promoted as one way of improving practice in research methodologies and frameworks aimed at the improvement of practice. However, such networks are not yet the norm and there is a growing need for books that provide a theoretical and practical account of how to develop and utilise networks effectively. Mei Kuin Lai and Stuart McNaughton address this need by providing a theoretical and practical account of how PLNs focused on collaborative analysis of data can be integrated into design-based research interventions to improve practice and student learning outcomes.Drawing primarily on examples from a design-based research intervention, the Learning Schools Model, topics covered include theoretical approaches to understanding networks, network purposes and features, constraints and enablers and future directions in utilising networks within design-based research. This intervention is one of the few demonstrations of a consistent and replicable effect of analysing and discussing data in networks on student outcomes within a wider design-based intervention design. The authors discuss the constraints and enablers of the context that influence how PLNs might be implemented across different contexts. Examples of how PLNs can demonstrate fidelity to the general structure of effective networks while adapting to local variations are also provided, enabling readers to conceptualise and design similar networks appropriate to their context.

Existing research on Professional Learning Networks looks at experiences in Europe and North America, with very little attention focused on education systems in the Global South, such as Chile. In 2015 more than 500 School Improvement Networks were created to support state-funded schools across the country with the idea of promoting a culture of collaboration. Although schools are expected to work in networks, they are held to account individually through high-stakes standardized testing and external inspections.This book employs the theoretical framework of collaborative inquiry to guide a mixed method study of fifteen in-depth multi-site case studies and descriptive statistical analysis of a questionnaire answered by 400 networks. The analysis provides evidence of the depth and spread of the knowledge and collaborative practices of these networks. Linking with the literature on Professional Learning Networks, this study highlights how school improvement networks can support the professional capital of principals and curriculum coordinators. The findings of this study are discussed around the issue of network sustainability, stressing the importance of network leadership and conditions of system infrastructure to mobilize network knowledge to schools, increasing the potential impact of school networks to transform schools' practices. By providing a unique inquiry, into an under researched part of the globe in regards to school networks, this book will prove invaluable for academics and practitioners in the areas of mixed method research, educational leadership and comparative education.

Professional learning networks (PLN) of teachers and others (such as university researchers) collaborating outside of their everyday community of practice are considered to be an effective way to foster school improvement. At the same time, to generate change, PLNs require effective support from school leaders. Such support should be directed at ensuring those participating in PLNs can engage in network learning activities; also that this activity can be meaningfully mobilised within participant's schools. What is less well understood however are the actions school leaders might engage in to provide this support. To address this knowledge gap, this book presents a case study of how senior leaders attempted to maximise the effectiveness of participating in PLNs for one learning network: the New Forest Research Learning Network (RLN) - a specific type of PLN designed to facilitate research-informed change at scale. In-depth semi-structured interviews with RLN participants, as well as impact data and policy documents, have been used to ascertain the types of leadership practices employed and their nature (i.e. whether geared towards prioritising, formalising or mobilising the work of the PLN). Also presented is an assessment of the perceived effectiveness of these practices and suggestions for the type of leadership activity that appear to maximise the effectiveness of schools engaging in professional learning networks more generally.

In a time of rapid policy and curriculum change, educators must be knowledge workers who continue to develop professionally. This book offers a critical exploration of how Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) equip educators to work collaboratively to develop their professional practice and be agents of innovation in their field. Providing access to six real-life examples of equity-oriented Professional Learning Networks, this book illustrates key attributes that build educators’ practice, expertise, and investment in innovation. Crucially, the authors shine a light on the ability of PLNs to address questions of equity, both for educators working in remote and rural communities who have limited access to professional development and other resources, and diverse learners from equity-seeking communities. This book is of interest to readers from scholarly, practitioner, and policy backgrounds who want to gain an innovative look at real-life cases to inform current and future equity-oriented PLNs. Readers will discover the importance and potential of centering teachers, students, inquiry, collaboration, and context within educational transformation efforts.

Why do programmes of continuing professional development and Learning (CPDL) for teachers so frequently fail to deliver sustained improvement in children’s social behaviour and academic performance? How can schools that prioritise the most disadvantaged children in one of the world’s poorest countries consistently achieve among the best academic results in the country? How can teachers in these schools, most of whom have received little or no formal training, provide CPDL that leads to improvement in other schools?These questions are as relevant in high income countries as in Sierra Leone, where the research for this book was carried out. Lessons in School Improvement from Sub-Saharan Africa addresses them head-on by describing the planning, delivery and evaluation of a school improvement programme in which development of professional learning networks (PLNs) was a key component. The evaluation showed that children whose teachers had taken part in the programme made significantly more progress in attendance, literacy and behaviour than children in control schools. The book’s professional relevance is strengthened by an accompanying Practitioners’ Manual with full details of the CPDL. This enables replication of the results and provides a guide for future school improvement programmes and PLNs, both in low and high income countries.

In educational policy, research and practice circles, there has been much attention in recent times to the power and potential of social networks for supporting educational improvement. Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation foregrounds the potential of the relational space, and its improvement, in the context of curriculum realisation in particular.Curriculum reform is a key lever in systems’ efforts to meet ambitious goals for student achievement, progress and wellbeing. Both large-scale reform and school-level curriculum change present learning demands for school leaders and teachers alike, and they simultaneously give rise to challenges and opportunities for those charged with giving effect to them. The authors highlight the role of social capital in addressing those demands, challenges, and opportunities, emphasising the need to improve the relational space within which curriculum change takes place.Improving the Relational Space of Curriculum Realisation outlines an approach to intervention that helps educators solve problematic patterns in their networks, leverage resources better within and across school networks, and embed relational conditions that are conducive to ambitious curriculum goals being realised.