Developing Teacher Leader Identity Through Community of Practice

abstract: ABSTRACT This action research case study explored the ways participation in a teacher leader learning community contributed to the identity development of teacher leaders at the Canajoharie Central School District. The goal of the study was to identify how a teacher leader learning community supported the identity of teacher leaders in their work. This action research study used a case study methodology and included qualitative and quantitative data collection. Purposive sampling identified six participants for the study. The qualitative data collection included initial and final one-on-one semi-structured interviews, meeting observation notes, research journal entries and peer interaction logs. Quantitative data were gathered using pre- and post- innovation surveys. Participants completed a pre-innovation survey and initial interview prior to the start of the innovation. Structured teacher leader learning community meetings were conducted over a four-month period of time in the Fall of 2018. Study participants led the design of collaborative group norms and meeting protocols. Participants facilitated the teacher leader learning community meetings. At the conclusion of the study period participants completed a post-innovation survey and final interview. Meeting observation notes, research journal entries and peer interaction log data were collected during the study period. Analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data of this study suggests that teacher leader identity is supported by participation in a structured teacher leader learning community. Teacher leaders benefitted from a formal structure through which to share successes, problem-solve situations and continue growth as leaders. The findings also suggest that meeting norms and protocols benefit the work of the teacher leaders in the learning community. These findings are consistent with previous research studies which indicate that teacher leaders need opportunities to come together and network to sustain their work. The findings from this action research study may assist other school districts in supporting teacher leaders in their local context.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 201

GTA: Groupware task analysis Modeling complexity

The task analysis methods discussed in this presentation stem from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Ethnography (as applied for the design of Computer Supported Cooperative Work CSCW), different disciplines that often are considered conflicting approaches when applied to the same design problems. Both approaches have their strength and weakness, and an integration of them does add value to the early stages of design of cooperation technology. In order to develop an integrated method for groupware task analysis (GTA) a conceptual framework is presented that allows a systematic perspective on complex work phenomena. The framework features a triple focus, considering (a) people, (b) work, and (c) the situation. Integrating various task-modeling approaches requires vehicles for making design information explicit, for which an object oriented formalism will be suggested. GTA consists of a method and framework that have been developed during practical design exercises. Examples from some of these cases will illustrate our approach

Social-Aware Forwarding Improves Routing Performance in Pocket Switched Networks

Several social-aware forwarding strategies have been recently introduced in opportunistic networks, and proved effective in considerably in- creasing routing performance through extensive simulation studies based on real-world data. However, this performance improvement comes at the expense of storing a considerable amount of state information (e.g, history of past encounters) at the nodes. Hence, whether the benefits on routing performance comes directly from the social-aware forwarding mechanism, or indirectly by the fact state information is exploited is not clear. Thus, the question of whether social-aware forwarding by itself is effective in improving opportunistic network routing performance remained unaddressed so far. In this paper, we give a first, positive answer to the above question, by investigating the expected message delivery time as the size of the net- work grows larger

Delivering Better Housing and Employment Outcomes for Offenders on Probation

The report ‘Delivering better housing and employment outcomes for offenders on probation’ presents the findings of qualitative research which included fieldwork in six probation areas with professionals involved in the delivery of housing, employment, training and education

Multi-agency training and the artist (Sharing our experience, Practitioner-led research 2008-2009; PLR0809/032)

The Multi-Agency Team Project approached issues of multi-agency training indirectly by using an artist as a catalyst in a group exercise examining movement and sound in relation to early childhood. The aim of the research was to run an experiential non-traditional training programme based on using an artist as a catalyst to promote inter-agency dialogue in one setting, Woodlands Park Nursery and Children’s Centre, and to analyse the findings. Eleven participants used this common experiential focus to frame collective research both as a focus group and as individual fieldworkers. The research demonstrated shared professional discourse but also collected judgements relevant to policy issues based on collaborative professional reflection triggered by the exercise. The findings are presented theoretically in terms of critical discourse analysis using the interpretation-supporting software ATLASti. We next take a further look at the role play exercise in which the group constituted itself as a ‘House of Commons Select Committee’ before summarizing what theoretical insights might be brought to bear and attempting to draw some provisional conclusions. Some evidence is presented suggesting there is a degree of tension and ambiguity between alterative models of multi-agency working

Developing effective child death review : a study of ‘early starter’ child death overview panels in England

Aim This qualitative study of a small number of child death overview panels aimed to observe and describe their experience in implementing new child death review processes, and making prevention recommendations. Methods Nine sites reflecting a geographic and demographic spread were selected from Local Safeguarding Children Boards across England. Data were collected through a combination of questionnaires, interviews, structured observations, and evaluation of documents. Data were subjected to qualitative analysis. Results Data analysis revealed a number of themes within two overarching domains: the systems and structures in place to support the process; and the process and function of the panels. The data emphasised the importance of child death review being a multidisciplinary process involving senior professionals; that the process was resource and time intensive; that effective review requires both quantitative and qualitative information, and is best achieved through a structured analytic framework; and that the focus should be on learning lessons, not on trying to apportion blame. In 17 of the 24 cases discussed by the panels, issues were raised that may have indicated preventable factors. A number of examples of recommendations relating to injury prevention were observed including public awareness campaigns, community safety initiatives, training of professionals, development of protocols, and lobbying of politicians. Conclusions The results of this study have helped to inform the subsequent establishment of child death overview panels across England. To operate effectively, panels need a clear remit and purpose, robust structures and processes, and committed personnel. A multiagency approach contributes to a broader understanding of and response to children’s deaths

A geometric protocol for cryptography with cards

In the generalized Russian cards problem, the three players Alice, Bob and Cath draw a,b and c cards, respectively, from a deck of a+b+c cards. Players only know their own cards and what the deck of cards is. Alice and Bob are then required to communicate their hand of cards to each other by way of public messages. The communication is said to be safe if Cath does not learn the ownership of any specific card; in this paper we consider a strengthened notion of safety introduced by Swanson and Stinson which we call k-safety. An elegant solution by Atkinson views the cards as points in a finite projective plane. We propose a general solution in the spirit of Atkinson's, although based on finite vector spaces rather than projective planes, and call it the `geometric protocol'. Given arbitrary c,k>0, this protocol gives an informative and k-safe solution to the generalized Russian cards problem for infinitely many values of (a,b,c) with b=O(ac). This improves on the collection of parameters for which solutions are known. In particular, it is the first solution which guarantees $k$-safety when Cath has more than one card