Conceptualising and contesting ‘fast policy’ in teacher learning: a comparative analysis of Sweden, Finland and Australia

Hardy, Ian; Heikkinen, Hannu L. T.; Olin, Anette

doi:10.1080/13664530.2020.1776761

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…For instance, in US and Australia, where accountability plays a significant role, the principal enters the classroom and gives lessons, so that teachers can learn new methods. The principal is also responsible for introducing and monitoring innovation (Hardy et al, 2020;Traga Philippakos, 2021). In Sweden, the first teacher, alongside with the principal, is responsible for innovation (Rönnerman& Olin, 2014).…”

Section: Context and Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, he became aware of the deteriorating effect of context on his practices, in terms of school tradition and the teachers invoking the authority of the law. Though he acknowledged the institutional context connected to national legislation and the Greek Ministry of Education, he did not focus on international fast track policies that shape everyday school activities on a global level (Hardy et al, 2020;Peck & Theodore, 2015). The principal identified legislation and institutional context as an obstacle to his leadership practices.…”

Section: Emphasis Of the Significance Of The Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Action Research and Critical Discourse Analysis: A Pathway to School Principals’ Professional Development

Sipitanos¹,

Katsarou²,

Polyzois³

2021

theijhss

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School leadership is an interesting, yet sensitive, field, which is crucial for school improvement (Cruz-González et al., 2021) and a key to sustaining change and improving educational outcomes (Aas et al., 2020). However, the study of leadership practices in school context can be challenging. As each school features complex networks of relations, influenced by various factors (social, educational, cultural, financial, etc.), research on leadership issues requires alternative and innovative research methods, capturing simultaneous, collective, and dialogic leadership practices in schools, to examine leadership dynamics "from within" (Raelin, 2020). Technocratic research focusing on the traits or behaviors of individuals (the leaders), cannot provide answers to complex, yet crucial, leadership issues (Crow et al., 2017), like: in which practice leadership is exercised, how leadership emerges and develops through day-to-day experience and how to change the trajectory of the leadership flow. However, such answers are necessary, to empower school principals to face the complex challenges of the 21 st century, like managing change, introducing innovations, implementing technological advances, and enhancing the learning procedure and outcomes for all members of the school community. There is increasing global concern about school principals' professional learning and development, as well as the improvement of leadership capacity (Crow and Whiteman 2016; Aas et al. 2020). The discussion on the key skills of school principals and how to master these skills is gaining momentum.In the Action Research (AR) project presented here, the school principal participated actively. He strove to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of leadership, its various meanings, and perceptions latent in his everyday practices, as well as to improve his practices as a principal. The project draws on Huber (2011), who argues that modes of professional learning, such as the provision of constant feedback, collegial exchange, and self-study, can lead principals to a reciprocal relationship with practice, effectively integrating theory and practice. The main research method used in this project to enhance the school principal's reflection was Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This research choice, though not so common in AR (Katsarou, 2013), was proved to be very fruitful. Field-notes and journal entries were also used and analyzed.This article aims to document and reflect on the processes that facilitated a school principal's shift, changing his perceptions about leadership and therefore his practice. Specifically, we aim to show how a school principal became empowered, managing to consciously distance himself from espoused theories focusing on leadership characteristics and behavior, towards theories highlighting social and material-discursive contingencies and collective actions, shaped by mutual discursive patterns that emerge and develop among participants in the educational situation under study. We consider this shift a prerequisite f...

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Section: Context and Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emphasis Of the Significance Of The Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Action Research and Critical Discourse Analysis: A Pathway to School Principals’ Professional Development

Sipitanos¹,

Katsarou²,

Polyzois³

2021

theijhss

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“…Tämä luo maaperää populistisille liikkeille ja lisää politiikan tempoilevuutta. Pikapolitiikan (fast policy) lisääntymisestä on havaittu merkkejä Suomessakin (Hardy, Heikkinen & Olin 2019;Heikkinen, Holma, Rinne, Simola & Värri 2019;Tervasmäki, Okkolin & Kauppinen 2018).…”

Section: Ammattikorkeakoulu Toisin Ajateltunaunclassified

Ammattikorkeakoulu toisin ajateltuna

Heikkinen¹,

Kukkonen²

2019

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Ammattikorkeakoulujen lakisääteisessä tehtävässä korostuvat työelämän tarpeisiin vastaaminen, alueellinen kehittäminen ja yhteistyö elinkeino- ja muun työelämän kanssa. Laki kehystää toimintaa mutta jättää tilaa tulkinnoille. Pohdimme tulkintoja tiedosta, osaamisesta, tutkimuksesta ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnallisesta tehtävästä. Perustamme tarkastelun antiikin filosofin Aristoteleen klassiseen erotteluun tiedon muodoista ja saksalaisen kriittisen yhteiskuntafilosofin Jürgen Habermasin teoriaan tiedon yhteiskunnallisista intresseistä. Rakennamme kaksi lähestymistapaa ammattikorkeakoulutukseen, tutkimukseen ja ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnalliseen tehtävään: rajattu ja laaja näkemys. Rajatussa näkemyksessä korostuvat käytännöllinen tieto, lineaarinen tulkinta osaamisesta, välittömiä käytännön sovelluksia tuottava tutkimus ja tekninen, osin praktis-hermeneuttinen tiedonintressi. Siten ammattikorkeakoulun yhteiskunnallinen tehtävä pohjautuu välitöntä hyötyä korostaviin, tämänhetkisiin elinkeino- ja muun työelämän odotuksiin ja tarpeisiin. Laaja näkemys edustaa dynaamista tulkintaa osaamisesta ja teoreettisia ja kriittis-emansipatorisia tiedon intressejä. Sen mukaan ammattikorkeakoulun tehtävän määrittelyssä tulee huomioida yhteiskunnalliset, historialliset, filosofiset ja ekologiset näkökulmat siten, että niiden vaikutuksia arvioidaan pitkällä aikavälillä. Pitkällä tähtäimellä ammattikorkeakouluja haastetaan siirtämään painopistettään globaaliin vastuuseen, tulevien sukupolvien hyvinvointiin ja ekososiaaliseen sivistykseen.

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“…Therefore we can legitimately wonder if we are not witnessing the construction of a new, globalised 'common sense of reform' (Topalov, 1999), which would relegate to the background the consideration of domestic contexts for the design and implementation of education policies, and which would be based on the promotion of decontextualised reforms and measures, which can travel rapidly in the name of their so-called effectiveness, according to a movement that some people have now described as 'fast policy' (Peck & Theodore, 2010;Hardy, Heikkinen & Olin, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking contexts in Southern Europe education policy analysis: towards a literature review

Pons

2022

RASE

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This article presents the very first findings of a scoping literature review on how scholars who work on French, Italian and Portuguese education policies consider and possibly conceptualise policy contexts in their analysis. Going through 175 articles published either in English or in French, it shows that the authors in the publications studied tend to contextualise little the analysis of education policies and that when they do so, there are no specific contextualisation operations for authors working on Southern European countries. Nevertheless, the presence of different analytical sensitivities from one country to another, as well as the still numerous limitations of our method, which is still in progress, suggest that the construction of a specific problematisation space remains possible, particularly around the logics of vernacularisation of global policy statements and requirements.

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Conceptualising and contesting ‘fast policy’ in teacher learning: a comparative analysis of Sweden, Finland and Australia

Cited by 9 publications

References 15 publications

Action Research and Critical Discourse Analysis: A Pathway to School Principals’ Professional Development

Action Research and Critical Discourse Analysis: A Pathway to School Principals’ Professional Development

Ammattikorkeakoulu toisin ajateltuna

Thinking contexts in Southern Europe education policy analysis: towards a literature review

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