What's in a vision? Introducing an organisational learning strategy in a local authority's education service

It is frequently asserted that schools and local authorities should become 'learning organisations' as a pre-condition for school improvement, but there is very little evidence about the specific processes and activities involved in such a transformation. This paper analyses the initial st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOxford review of education Vol. 32; no. 4; pp. 467 - 486
Main Authors Reeves, Jenny, Boreham, Nick
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford Routledge 01.09.2006
Carfax Publishing
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Academic Achievement
Analysis
Education policy
Educational activities
Educational administration
Educational Change
Educational Improvement
Educational Objectives
Educational Policy
Educational research
Educational services
Foreign Countries
Learning
Learning Strategies
Learning theory
Local government
Organization theory
Organizational Development
Organizational goals
Organizational learning
Participative Decision Making
Program Implementation
School Districts
School Personnel
Schools
Scotland
Seminars
Sense making
Social interaction
Students
Teachers
United Kingdom
United Kingdom (Scotland)
United Kingdom > UK
Scotland
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Summary:It is frequently asserted that schools and local authorities should become 'learning organisations' as a pre-condition for school improvement, but there is very little evidence about the specific processes and activities involved in such a transformation. This paper analyses the initial stages of the implementation by a Scottish local authority Education Department of an organisational learning strategy, whose ultimate purpose was to improve pupils' attainment and achievement by developing the Authority's collective capacity to learn new ways of meeting their needs. The analysis focuses on some of the processes that, despite a huge literature on the subject of organisational learning and change, have hitherto remained somewhat mysterious. Adopting an analytical framework derived from activity and actor network theory, we explore empirical evidence of the key stages in 'vision building', showing how sense-making was structured and highlighting the processes and activities which constituted the initial stages in learning to learn as an organisation.
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ISSN:0305-4985
1465-3915
DOI:10.1080/03054980600884185