David Eddy-Spicer, Melanie Ehren and Mukdarut Bangpan
The collection and dissemination of standardized performance information about students, teachers, schools and school systems offer potentially important tools for school…
Abstract
Purpose
The collection and dissemination of standardized performance information about students, teachers, schools and school systems offer potentially important tools for school accountability and resource allocation as well as school improvement in developing countries. However, performance monitoring systems in developing countries are in many cases copied from those in high-income countries without a clear understanding of their functioning in contexts of limited resources and capacity for change. The purpose of this paper is to examine the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which system-wide performance monitoring affects school-level organization and processes in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Design/methodology/approach
The review employs realist synthesis because of the complexity and dynamism of conditions in LMICs, the wide variability in available literature and the aim of explaining how particular organizational outcomes arise, given particular conditions. The authors draw on findings from a systematic review of 22 studies and reports, published since 2001, related to the implementation of performance monitoring.
Findings
The findings highlight key barriers to the use of data to inform school accountability and improvement. Capacity to collect, interpret and use data is an important condition to both effective external accountability as well as improvement of schools.
Originality/value
The review uses realist approaches to building middle-level theories to help scholars, educational advisers, policy makers and educational leaders understand the causal processes that result in certain outcomes from monitoring activities and to identify the conditions that are necessary for those processes to have the desired outcomes.
Details
Keywords
Sarah Seleznyov, Marisa Quaresma, Melanie Ehren, Sui Lin Goei and Gorete Fonseca
This study examines the challenges and successes of implementing and sustaining lesson study (LS) as an approach to in-service teacher professional development (PD) in primary…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the challenges and successes of implementing and sustaining lesson study (LS) as an approach to in-service teacher professional development (PD) in primary schools in Portugal and England, highlighting the impact of institutional contexts.
Design/methodology/approach
Two schools that used LS as an approach to PD over a period of at least three years were identified. The theoretical framework of institutionalism guided the methodology and analysis of findings, seeking to explore relationships between institutionalised PD practices at national and school level, and how interactions between actors in schools helped or hindered the institutionalism of LS. The qualitative case studies included document analysis, observations of LS practices and interviews with teachers and leaders engaging in LS.
Findings
The findings reveal the importance of institutional entrepreneurs, who create a narrative to support LS, allocate resources to enable it and create a “relational space”, in which it can be tested and tweaked before sharing with others in the school. An institutional entrepreneur is particularly vital when national regulatory frameworks prescribe specific PD types that are not conducive to LS (such as in Portugal). However, even in more open frameworks, the entrepreneur needs to frame the LS model to fit institutionalised expectations.
Originality/value
This study, with its analysis of strategies that support sustained use of LS in schools, advances the growing field of LS research. This field of research is moving its focus from short-term LS projects that concentrate on immediate impact on teachers and students, to a sustainable approach that uses LS for in-service, school-based teacher PD, a practice with a long history in Japan.