Teachers' capacity to realize educational change through inquiry-based working and distributed leadership

Teachers face many challenges in their daily teaching practices. On the one hand, they must be able to improve their teaching and learning strategies by navigating changing goals in order to meet the variety in students’ educational needs. On the other hand, governmental and school board projects aimed at educational development focus increasingly on data. These issues require teachers to develop their capacity to realize educational change. Herein, working inquiry-based can be helpful for teachers to investigate their daily practices. In developing and maintaining an inquiry-based working environment, leadership that encourage teachers to take ownership of the change process may be essential. Limited studies focus on how distributed leadership or inquiry-based working may be related to teachers’ capacity to realize educational change, Also, knowledge about whether school leaders’ perceptions of distributed leadership are relevant in enhancing teachers’ capacity to change is scarce. This dissertation examines these issues through four studies. The results show that inquiry-based working illustrates for teachers which educational changes need to be made when adapting teaching strategies. Also, working inquiry-based encourages them to take leadership roles. Their sense of self-efficacy seems to be stronger as well as the extent to which they support one another and share experiences. Although school leaders differ in their interpretations of distributed leadership, distributing leadership may still be worthwhile. Teachers seem to be more likely to collaborate, internalize school goals into personal aims and show a higher level of self-efficacy than in schools without such leadership distribution

The relationship between primary school leaders' utilization of distributed leadership and teachers' capacity to change

Although it is generally known that distributed leadership is relevant for reinforcing teachers' capacity to change, how leadership roles are distributed among teachers largely depends on how principals perceive distributed leadership. Specifying principals' perceptions and how these are related to teachers' capacity to change leads to theories about the knowledge and beliefs of leaders with regard to distributed leadership that are crucial for achieving educational change as a team. Combining questionnaire data from 787 Dutch primary school teachers and interview data from 58 principals in a parallel mixed methods design, this study shows differences in how school leaders distribute leadership roles. In addition, the results indicate that several aspects of teachers' capacity to change, namely, joint work, collegial support, knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and their internalization of school goals, are more present in schools in which school leaders distribute leadership among teachers than in schools in which they do not

Impact of inquiry-based working on the capacity to change in primary education

Educational improvement projects are increasingly focused upon the significant role of data in determining student performance, teachers’ learning, and schools’ ability to initiate local reforms. Thus, schools are moving toward a new approach to learning, progressing from the routine to the non-routine through inquiry-based working. In addition, educational improvement requires teachers to exhibit the capacity to change, namely, to implement the innovations proposed by government agencies or the schools themselves. Therefore, the current study investigates the extent to which the inquiry-based working of primary school teachers predicts their capacity to change. Furthermore, the study identifies which aspects of inquiry-based working are the critical drivers in the capacity to change. A mixed model analysis of questionnaire data collected from a sample of 787 teachers at 65 Dutch elementary schools revealed that the central aspects of inquiry-based work (i.e., working with an inquiry habit of mind, demonstrating data literacy, using data in the classroom, and using data at the school level) are significant in promoting an increased capacity to change. Working with an inquiry habit of mind emerged as the most critical aspect. Data use in the classroom and at the school level are complementary factors that also enhance a teacher’s capacity to change

The effects of distributed leadership and inquiry-based work on primary teachers' capacity to change: Testing a model

This article studies the relationship between teachers' perceptions of distributive leadership and inquiry-based work in primary schools and the resulting impact on those teachers' capacity to contribute to educational change. The path analysis that tests the proposed model relies on questionnaire data collected from 787 teachers in 65 primary schools. The results indicate a direct, positive effect of distributive leadership on teachers' collaboration and collegiality, as well as on their motivation to contribute to educational change. Inquiry-based work positively mediates the effect of such leadership styles on three aspects of teachers' capacity to change: collaboration, professional learning activities, and motivational factors. Therefore, all three promising aspects can be reinforced if teachers adopt leadership roles and combine these roles with inquiry-based work practices