Actions and practice architectures for realising sustainable development by restructuring school organisations

The study investigates how practice architectures in schools and kindergartens enable and limit the facilitation of sustainable development in the organisations. In a previous project, schools and kindergartens in three Swedish municipalities were restructured to promote professional learning about sustainable development, including the use of agents of change as drivers behind the changes. In this follow-up study nine years after the intervention, the researchers investigate whether the restructuring of schools and kindergartens in one of the municipalities endured and whether the agents of change were still active. The research questions are:1) How do actions and practice architectures arise when it comes to realising sustainable development in educational organisations (actions refers to actions of agents of change, but also others such as teachers, school leaders and kindergarten coordinators)? 2) How can practice architectures explain restructuring processes in school organisations?

The results show differences between the kindergartens and schools in the project. In the schools, the existing practice architectures limit the realisation of sustainable development, while the practice architectures in kindergartens facilitate sustainable development. A limiting practice architecture in schools is the idea of the autonomous headteacher, which seems to disrupt distributed leadership. In the kindergartens, on the other hand, the coordinators are crucial when it comes to facilitating employees’ contribution to professional learning.

The study is a follow-up study of a previous study that investigated the implementation of a restructuring process aimed at promoting sustainable development in schools and kindergartens in three Swedish municipalities. In the follow-up study, the researchers interview leaders and employees at schools and kindergartens in one of the municipalities. The data material consists of interviews with 46 informants: three chief municipal education officers, 18 teachers, 21 kindergarten teachers, two headteachers and two kindergarten coordinators.

Seiser, A. F. & Blossing, U. (2020). «Actions and practice architectures for realising sustainable development by restructuring school organisations”. Forskning og Forandring, 3(2):69-88.