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Exchanging Knowledge and Building Communities via International
Networking
James Underwood
University of Northampton
and
University of Cambridge, Wolfson College
A paper presented in the symposium:
The Role Of Teacher Leadership In The Transition To Democratic Society,
at
ECER 2015, Budapest, 11th September
ABSTRACT
This paper is linked to a doctoral study focusing on the impact of international networking
and knowledge exchange on the professional identity of teachers. It explores the experience
of teachers from the Balkans working with colleagues in the UK. In this paper I first outline a
conceptual framework which illuminates some of the challenges and rewards of constructing
a professional identity within a professional community that crosses national boundaries.
Previous studies have often portrayed professional relationships as being by definition
unequal when involving nations in differing economic positions but these have not presented
the entire picture. In fact the levels of self-efficacy and self-confidence amongst teachers
engaged in such programmes from all nations can be very high. The paper explores the
proposition that these teachers may not primarily be interested in transferring practice but
may have a broader democratic agenda reflecting a self-perception as skilled professionals
and societal leaders and also that they may have valid reasons for participation in terms of
their own professional growth. The data for this paper was drawn from interviews with three
education professionals from the Balkan nations (specifically from Macedonia) who have
been involved in working on and developing teacher leadership programmes in their own
settings in connection with larger international programmes. The discussion of data includes
an exploration of a series of interrelated themes derived from the concept framework. These
encompass a discussion of the extent to which these teachers share a common professional
identity; whether this therefore constitutes a professional community and whether
involvement in networking projects was significant in shaping their professional identity in
other ways. Also discussed are issues and challenges related to the exchanging of knowledge
between teachers working in different cultural contexts.
KEYWORDS: democracy, teacher, leadership, professionality, networks
Introduction
At the ECER conference in 2014 in Porto I presented a paper titled ‘The impact on teacher
identity of international connections’. In this paper I outlined a conceptual framework in
terms of how identity may be constructed within a professional community especially one
that crosses national boundaries. In it I also then discussed the data from three interviews
with British teachers who had worked on projects with colleagues from other nations. These
colleagues were all primarily involved in international work via the International Teacher
Leadership project (Frost, 2011) connected to the HertsCam programme in the UK.
This second paper builds upon this paper that I presented in 2014. In the first part of this
paper I shape a concept framework in which I look at the potential rewards and challenges
faced by teachers from differing nations in terms of building a shared identity and of
recognising a common community of practice. I specifically present three themes that are
explored later in the second part of the paper these are: a professional theme looking at the
process of exchanging practice, a political theme of sharing democratic values and a personal
theme of building a community with like-minded individuals. In the second part I discuss in
the context of this concept framework three interviews with professionals working in
education in the Balkan nations, specifically Macedonia, who have all been involved in
international networking with teachers from the UK.
Part 1: A conceptual framework
In the paper that I presented last year I concluded by stating that for teachers who seek and
build professional communities that exist beyond the boundaries of their own workplace the
process is a deeply rewarding experience. For these teachers the multitude of communities
they belong to enabled them to build fluid professional identities and to build self-efficacy. I
also concluded that among all my interviewees there was considerable interest in talking to
teachers from other nations about teaching but this was expressed in a more nuanced way
than having an expectation that practice could be easily transferred. However, I did also note
that as this community becomes broader the way this community defines itself becomes
narrower. These teachers from the UK who perceived themselves as belonging to this global
community of outward looking and innovative teachers tended to define themselves as having
distinct values in comparison to those that they work locally with but who do not engage with
others outside their own workplace (Underwood, 2014). In the rest of this section I present
three further concepts that build from this conclusion and that I use to develop my discussion
of the interview data in the second part.
Sharing practice
There is considerable debate among academic researchers over whether a search for
transferable practice from the West among non-Western nations is a positive or even an
achievable goal. A discourse has emerged expressed by a range of writers which questions
whether Western teaching styles, which tend to emphasise critical thinking are necessarily
appropriate for non-Western cultures and even whether they are part of a broader post-
colonial agenda. According to this discourse Western teaching methods are often impractical
and inappropriate for developing nations, where the political culture is different and where
simple issues such as class size and lack of resources present specific challenges (Bajaj,
2010; Osei, 2010).
This discourse however is not entirely dominant, there is also an argument that teachers and
researchers from nations outside the West tend to seek transferable practice avidly but that
they also do so in sophisticated ways appropriate for their context. If this is a professional
ambition of teachers and others working in education in terms of developing their own
classrooms then therefore perhaps this should be welcomed rather than criticised (Chiriac et
al., 2014).
Democratic debate.
As discussed above there is an established history of non-Western nations seeking to import
practice from the West. There is also a long history in Western nations of the process of
linking with and learning from the education systems of other nations being connected to
highly idealistic goals regarding the building of a better society rather than improving
classroom practice directly. Further context to the origin and nature of these idealistic rather
than pragmatic goals of learning from other nations is given by Fujikane (2003) in an
historical account of changes in the language of comparative studies. He writes about how the
following terms dominated discourse over successive decades within Europe, the US and the
wealthier nations of the Far East: ‘international understanding’ in the 1950s, ‘development
education’ with its implications of supporting poorer nations in the 1960s and 70s, and
‘multi-cultural education’ and ‘peace education’ up until today. He describes how all of these
have an emphasis on societal change rather than on classroom practice alone, although
changing classroom practice may be a broader goal.
In contrast to this though and to some extent in opposition to these highly idealistic goals,
within the West there has also been a long-running concern that international exchange or
comparison, whether conducted by academics or teachers, seems ungrounded in the reality of
the classroom. Brickman in 1954 at the first annual conference on Comparative Education
wrote about the ‘widespread feeling that the comparative study of foreign systems of
education is decorative…of little value to the teacher.' (as cited in Brickman, 1977). These
concerns have been echoed more recently by others including Chabbott and Elliott (2003),
Baker and LeTendre (2005) and Steiner-Khamsi (2011). They specifically see much
government support for the process of comparison as policy makers seeking around the world
for justification for solutions that they already have in mind, especially in the context of
political responses to large scale studies such as TIMSS and PISA.
Commonalities between teachers
In the paragraphs above I have presented two rival but interweaving discourses regarding the
process of international networking with fellow professionals. However, there is a smaller but
I think equally significant body of literature that focusses on the personal experiences of
professionals and how the relationships that are built by international networking may be
motivating and rewarding enough to be regarded as a valid reason for such projects,
regardless of greater goals. The common discourse here suggests that teachers will often find
a high degree of commonality in the practice, experience and definitions of professional
identity among colleagues from other nations. According to this discourse it is possible that
one reason why some argue that relatively little practice is transferred between nations is
simply that there is no more to import to or from the Far East, Finland, UK or indeed any
other country, than there is from the school or even classroom next door (Manzon, 2007;
Mason, 2007). The writers who have framed this discourse also commonly stress that it is
important not to assume that a school is representative of a nation or a nation representative
of a region, (Bray, 2007). Instead they tend to focus on individual teachers emphasising that
colleagues that one may find oneself attuned to may come from another nation or one’s own
locality. This could potentially become a reductionist perspective in which the lack of lessons
to be learnt from national models could be taken to mean that facilitating networking between
teachers is meaningless. However, in this paper I argue that it could be that any way that
teachers have of exploring and expanding the community that they belong to is potentially
positive in terms of building self-efficacy and as a corollary such concrete goals of achieving
better teacher retention or more successful schools.
Part 2: Themes emerging from these interviews
In the concept framework above I identified a series of common themes that have shaped the
discourse around international networking and partnership in recent decades. They are not
exhaustive and my doctoral study explores further themes as well as exploring these in
greater depth. However, they are sufficient for the purposes of this paper and I use them to
structure the second section. In short the three areas of current debate presented are as
follows:
● debates around sharing practice including a discourse that problematizes this and
another that embraces it. Both of these can also be seen to be part of a broader neo-
colonialist debate about the influence of Western ideas on other nations.
● debates around the role that international networking between teachers can play in
terms of enabling democratic debate and also the potential limits of such lofty goals.
● debates around the personal rewards for teachers of engaging with professionals from
other nations and also around whether such a process is of enough significance to
justify networking processes in its own right.
The data that informs this second half of this paper was gained from three interviews with
education professionals who had worked in schools in the Balkans. It should be noted that
their professional experience is varied and therefore inhibits the ability to generalise.
However, that is not the purpose of this paper, which has been written to generate discussion
and is embedded within a larger research process, namely the writing of my doctoral thesis. A
brief description of the professional role of each is as follows, names have been changed.
· Jana is an education professional working in a senior position in an NGO, she has worked in
schools and has taught at secondary level. She has also lived and studied in both the USA and
the UK. She has been involved in international networking through a variety of projects including
those connected to the International Teacher Leadership Programme.
Anna is an experienced primary teacher working in Macedonia, who has also been involved
in international networking through a variety of projects including those connected to the
International Teacher Leadership Programme.
· Simona is an experienced secondary teacher who taught in Macedonia but now teaches in an
English state secondary school in North London. She has been engaged in international
networking primarily through the British Council rather than the International Teacher
Leadership programme.
Sharing practice
As regards the challenges and benefits of attempting to share practice the debates identified in
the academic discourse and presented in the section above were very much reflected in the
responses that the interviewees gave. There is certainly a perception that there are models of
excellence within the UK education system. However, this was perceived by all three
interviewees in a nuanced way. The only aspect of practice in the UK that was universally
seen as distinct, positive and transferable was the methodology that shapes the teacher
leadership project. This was unexpectedly most clearly affirmed by the two interviewees who
had been involved in this project. However, similar comments were made by Simona. In this
context it is worth noting that the teacher leadership project although highly developed and
with a distinct ethos, is part of a wider academic discourse that has seen practitioner and
action research increasingly becoming part of the mainstream, even as regards this though it
was recognised that developing such a culture in nations where it is not yet embedded takes
time.
Anna spoke of her engagement with this project but very much like the English teachers
interviewed for the paper that I wrote for the ECER in 2014 (Underwood, 2014) she felt that
her involvement made her distinct and part of a smaller community of innovative teachers.
Again therefore a similar challenge was thrown up, as by defining herself as part of a wider
community of innovative teachers she simultaneously created alternative boundaries that
excluded other teachers. These boundaries were defined by her perception of their approach
to practice. This was a viewpoint also supported by comments made by Jana.
In terms of specifically sharing classroom practice there was again a nuanced response. Both
Anna and Simona had considerable confidence in their abilities as teachers and therefore
whilst interested in the practice of UK colleagues did not expect there to be significant
changes to their practice that would be brought on by a dialogue with teachers working in
English schools. This is not to say that they rejected dialogue indeed they embraced it.
However, they saw it primarily as a positive reflective process. Simona stated that her
perception was that although there was some very good practice in the school that she worked
at in London that there was also some of what she perceived to be weak practice including
copying and rote learning, whilst she had also seen excellent practice in Macedonia. She also
referred in her interview to her experience of the current political discourse in the UK, of
embracing teaching ideas that come from China and Singapore, whilst her former colleagues
informed her of a political discourse in Macedonia, whereby teachers were being directed to
look for ideas from the UK. This illustrates the complex nature of the search for good
practice in education in a partially globalised world, where in Macedonia she felt Western
methods were highly idealised but where as a teacher in England she found that Far Eastern
ones were. I use the term partially as it can be argued that we idealise other systems and
portray them in deeply simplistic ways partly to justify changes we already have in mind.
Democratic debate
Whilst there was a large degree of commonality as regards the discussion above, in terms of
this second theme differences were more wide ranging. Simona certainly saw all education
exchange being about sharing in a democratic dialogue just as much as it was related to the
process of teaching. Anna and Jana also saw a remit in building social cohesion but they saw
this as being more closely linked to teaching with both being an aspect of a common process.
In Anna’s case this was seen as linked to the entire process of classroom interaction, of
building respectful and discursive relationships with children together and of teaching
strategies that enabled the children’s voice. This may reflect the fact that Anna teaches at the
primary age range, where any political debate or discussion is more likely to expressed in
terms of being kind and caring citizens within a community rather than as big ‘P’ political
discussion. However, it could equally reflect the different organisations both had worked with
and the subtly different visions that these have. The ITL project embeds political discourse
more deeply within the teaching process, as is reflected by the central concept of the teacher
as leader of change.
Although Simona was enthusiastic about the link between education and civil society she was
also wary of Westernisation and of what could be defined as a neo-colonialist discourse. She
felt that while she had shown sensitivity when working with teachers from other nations,
there was a risk that a set of supposedly ‘British values’ could be portrayed as a moral
absolute, with the vehicle of an overly idealised education system used to promulgate this. In
conclusion to this sub-section therefore it seems that teachers as with policy makers see the
political process of building civil society as being intertwined with the process of teaching.
However, fears of an unequal relationship are not limited to academic discussion and this
area of international teacher relationships needs to approached with sensitivity.
Personal engagement
All the interviewees viewed the experiences that they had had engaging in international
networking to be positive. Simona felt that she had built life-long friendships that had helped
her to build resilience in terms of remaining in the teaching profession. They had affirmed her
perception of her own professional status and thereby her sense of self-efficacy as a teacher.
Meanwhile, Anna had not built long term personal relationships in the same way but had
found short conferences when she had the chance to meet other teachers deeply affirming and
rewarding. She used strong and extremely positive language in describing these events. This
was not surprising and fits consistently with other writing in this area. Jana was someone who
had taught but whose main professional role now lay in facilitation. This gave her a distinct
perspective. She saw the value of international working but she also saw the value of more
localised processes, reflecting ideas presented earlier that there may be as much to learn from
teachers in neighbouring schools as there is by crossing national boundaries. They all
acknowledged that the process of working with teachers from other nations is positive in that
this other audience of people outside those from familiar professional contacts can be
significant in developing self-efficacy and a perception of belonging to a larger and valued
professional community.
Conclusions
In the title of this paper I presented two potential goals that may be achieved by facilitating
networking and dialogue between teachers from different nations, these are ‘exchanging
knowledge’ and ‘building communities’. I then presented a concept framework that linked
these together under three themes of: sharing practice, democratic debate and personal
engagement. In terms of the first of these ‘sharing practice’ it seems that via international
networking, knowledge is exchanged in terms of know-how. Teachers are interested in
learning from the practice of others and are open to interesting ideas for lessons. However,
those teachers who take part in such programmes also tend to be a self-defining group of
innovative teachers with high self-efficacy, therefore their confidence in their own practice is
high and their belief in their skills as teachers and lesson designers also noticeably strong. So
although they are interested in practice, for them the greater goal is a reflective goal. This
then links to the second of the three themes that I have presented: democratic debate. All saw
the significance of international networking, and local networking, in terms of building a
perception of belonging to a global professional community from which they would take
pride and which they could use to build a professional identity that they wished to adopt in
defining themselves. This finally links to the third theme of the importance of the
relationships that are built by such processes.
In short it seems that for teachers in dialogue with teachers from other nations, the learning of
know-how is important. However, by sharing practice with others who they do not commonly
work with teachers also develop know-why, this is perhaps more significant in sustaining
them throughout their career.
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