Leading Learning by Networking

Project summary

The three-years project interlinks two topical issues: school networking and inclusive education. Coping with diversity at schools is a matter of close cooperation and joint learning, not only within schools, but also among schools. Teacher networking in schools has been considered to be one of effective ways of professional development and increasing expertise at schools in recent years. When talking about professional networks in our project, we mean open, continuously cooperating groups of teachers within one school and across various schools sharing their experience and materials and cooperating in terms of innovations and development of teaching and learning. Many researchers as well as policy makers underline the importance of internal and external support of networks. It is therefore essential to prepare school leaders in relation to their competence to lead and manage a network of teachers. The value of the project is the opportunity to compare the situation in the individual countries (schools), to mutually exchange experience and create such an educational material that will support innovative approaches in the work of headteachers and in their efforts to manage professional learning networks. The main objectives of the project are (1) to develop competencies of headteachers of primary and lower secondary schools for managing professional networks of teachers focused (not only) on the area of diversity management at schools and building a culture of networking at schools; (2) to develop competencies of the trainers of headteachers in the educational topic of professional networks by developing the training modules; (3) to promote a cooperation and exchange of experience among the participating headteachers and their trainers. The main target groups are headteachers and their trainers. In the second sequence, the target group also includes teachers particularly involved in the exchange of experience and improving the quality of teaching through participation in the professional networks aimed at managing diversity at schools. The project consortium consists of six partners (CZ, SI, SE, BE, UK, ES), the Czech partner (Masaryk University) is the project coordinator. The project partners have been involved in developing and realising nationally recognized training courses/programmes for headteachers, and they cooperate with entities involved in the development of school policy. All the partner institutions have been in long-term cooperation with a high number of schools and headteachers in research and development projects, too. The methodology of the project includes activities as following: Website and communication platform preparation, theory on networking review, assessment of the head teachers/school needs and situation in involved countries – qualitative study (interview with headteachers) and quantitative study (questionnaire), development of Baseline Study, training modules preparation, training modules piloting, national workshops and Handbook for headteacher trainers development. Five headteachers in each country will co-operate on the interviews, examples of good practice, giving feedbacks etc. For the purpose of experience and good practice, the headteachers of the involved (and other) schools may use the project website (national and international sections), they may create contacts and cooperating network of headteachers/schools at the national and international level and they can continue in cooperation even after termination of the project. The main project outputs are: Theoretical Framework (text file), a comparative study based on qualitative analysis (text file), comparative study based on quantitative analysis (text file), complete Baseline Study summarizing theoretical and empirical data, and suggestions for traning modules (printed in English and all national languages), Handbook – training modules (CD). The quality of the outputs will be reviewed by the experienced external evaluator. The feedbacks from headteachers, national workshops and ENIRDELM conference participants will be incorporated. The outputs will be promoted through project website, national workshops, international symposia at ENIRDELM conferences, closing conference, different national media etc. The training modules and Baseline Study are going to become a part of the training courses implemented in the participating partner institutions and they are therefore going to continue to be used. Dissemination strategies have been developed to make project results available to relevant groups and individuals. The materials will remain available on the website of the project even after the termination of the project, they will be available on CDs, they can be used by a number of educational institutions in many countries around the world.