1. On Action Research in Schools as Organizations University of Tromsö, 5th of May 2010 Petri Salo Professor in Adult Education Åbo Akademi University, Faculty of Eduation Vasa, Finland psalo@abo.fi

2. The motto of an folk enlightener Think for yourself! So, what is Action Research?

3. Our dependence on language Metaphors as compressed stories/narratives Create a metaphor, parable Action Research is like...

4. ACTION RESEARCH Systematic collaborative action for affecting and changing practices and the societal conditions in which they are embedded. Action research is anchored in practitioners theory-embedded practical experience, it relies on knowing-in-action and reflection-on-action, and aims at reinforcing social conciousness in an dialectical and collaborative manner. Petri Salo 27 april 2010 after an early ride on bicycle on the flat Finnish countryside

5. Action research as collaborative enlightenment

6. Systematic collaborative action for affecting and changing practices and the societal conditions in which they are embedded. Action research is anchored in practitioners theory-embedded practical experience, it relies on knowing-in-action and reflection- on-action, and aims at reinforcing social conciousness in an dialectical and collaborative manner. (For) what is a school? How are the everyday activities in schools organized? What/where is the core of a school? How do the actors in schools act? And why do they act as they act? How do they relate to (professional) development and change? ACTION RESEARCH IN SCHOOLS? A close encounter

7. Organizational sociology is the study of formal groups organized to achieve their goals efficiently. Examples of formal organizations are business corporations and govern- ment agencies. Unlike other social units like families and neighborhoods that meet personal needs, formal organizations operate in a deliberate way to accomplish complex goals. Organizational sociologists might study a corporation to learn how to best set up work groups to enhance worker productivity. Yahoo Answers 27.04.2010 (Question resolved two years ago) A analytical and critical perspective on organization theory focusing on four phenomenons: power, change, the human factor and the context An inside perspective focusing the everyday acting and reasoning of the actors. The aim is to of understand how things are rather than explain or foresee how they could or should be

8. The micropolitical perspective An insider perspective focusing the everyday acting and reasoning of the teachers and heads Focus is on how different actors or groups in schools manage to carry through their interests, aims and opinions with a disregard for the interests, aims and opinions of other actors. The political aspect has to do with power, influence and the possibility of affecting and transforming purposes and values differing from one's own. Also cooperation and collegiality are interpreted in terms of power, decrees, steering and control. School leadership is associated with formal power and control, not with direction and legitimacy as in the cultural perspective. POWER/FORMAL/STRUCTURE & INFLUENCE/INFORMAL/CULTURE

9. Organizational characteristics of the school (a) The activities in the school are politically directed and controlled, and are therefore largely dependent on environment (b) The goals and aims are diffuse and contradictory, equivocal criteria for taking up a definite position with regard to the fulfilment of an aim are lacking (c) The basic conflict concerning control and autonomy between the bureaucratic–hierarchic organization and the professionally acting teachers (d) The internal integration is weak and mutual dependence small (e) The knowledge base of the school is weak. The outcome of the teaching is therefore difficult to establish and measure equivocally

10. The immediate conclusion of an inexperienced action researcher Schools are not rational or learning organizations Schools are total messes How to understand and develop a mess? How to act and research in a mess?

11. “One can compare the school with different patterns of society… HOW DO YOU MEAN? …at the department of health care they work in a democracy, at the department of radiology we have a dictatorship while the department of physiotherapy seems to be in a state of anarchy.” “All the important decisions at our school for the moment are made by the Supreme Soviet, an Olympic committee, the Mafia, call it whatever. “ “I have no degrees in Education and I am not certain that it is a big loss. In my experience teachers having formal degrees are not at all better than those without a teacher training. … The best lectures I have attended to have been given by nurses without such a background. I think that Education as science is, how shall I put it, science for science’s sake, didactics and all that.” TEACHERS ACTION THEORIES ?

12. The more things change (in schools) the more they remain the same Every effort to change the culture of school is dependent on two conditions An explicit theory on change, and that the theory on change is adjusted to the context in which the change is to be furthered

13. It resembles the life of an enter- tainer, one is standing on a stage, sometimes you get some positive response and some-times you notice that it went all to blazes. (Salo 2002, 217) Teachers, in short, face some of the same imperatives as theatre people without possessing equal resources. Lortie (1975, 166) Individualism, conservatism, presentism

14. Schools are loosely coupled (Weick 1976) eggcrate organizations (Lortie 1975)

15. Carbage-can model for decision- making in an organized anarchy (Cohen, March & Olsen 1972)

16. MEANS? ENDS? Teaching as an activity, `performed´ in an isolated classroom, is extremely complex and uncertain. The goals are vague and conflicting, the professional knowledge base is weak and the coupling between teaching and learning is loose. Teachers have to find and create their own personal style of teachin g. (Lieberman & Miller 1990, 153-156).

17. LESSONS LEARNED WHEN ACTING AND RESEARCHING IN A SCHOOL Schools are complex organisations Schools are interactionsintensive organizations Schools are bureaucratic-hierarchic organizations Schools are institutions Schools are interconnected/loosely coupled systems Schools are organized anarchies Schools are (micro)political organizations Researchers, stay out of schools!

18. Main features in the formal, political and dramaturgical perspective on schools as organizations (Salo 2008) Perspective on school as an organization FormalPoliticalDramaturgical MetaphorMachineArenaTheatre, Scene Decision-making A struggleA play Focus onEndsMeansIdentity Meaning makingOrganizationalSubculturalIndividual RationalityInstrumentalProceduralExpressive

19. Secluded independence Concentration onresults/ utility Formal support Informal support C o n s e r v a t i s m orientedto thepresent Personal and intrinsic reward Focusing onteaching Secluded independence Concentration onresults/ utility Formal support Informal support C o n s e r v a t i s m orientedto thepresent Personal and intrinsic reward Focusing onteaching The private arena The arena of interaction The public arena Arena = Sandy place, area sanded for combat (Websters Encyklopedia 1989) MICROPOLITICS