IV ISA Forum of Sociology (February 23-28, 2021)

120

Participation, Action and Research for School Improvement

Abstract Submissions Closed

RC10 Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management (host committee)

Language: English

Session Type: Oral

The literature on school improvement shows that the processes related to improvement are studied according to a bottom-up approach which identifies the power and control at the level of those who can actually act the changes. These processes are organizational conditions, teaching collaboration, teachers training, parental involvement, student empowerment, leadership, capacity building. The main goal is to improve both student results and the school ability to change. The involvement of all the school actors is crucial, including students and parents. Each school can improve and helps itself to avoid any dependency (Potter et al., 2002). The school is the fulcrum of change, having to interpret the innovation introduced from the outside, overcoming the professional isolation, strengthening the internal abilities. The research evidence shows that school improvement strategies must be custom tailored to the school itself, consistent with its culture and state of development. This involves referring to different strategies in relation to different phases of school improvement, since effective strategies for a school are not for others (Hopkins et al., 2014). The methodological cornerstones of the PAR is in line with the expectations that emerge from the studies on school improvement, starting from the need to involve all the school actors in changing.The use of PAR in educational contexts, increasingly widespread in the world, is due to the dialogic nature of empirical research in education within the theoretical framework of the constructivism,as it facilitates the development of research processes based on the involvement of researchers and practitioners (Bove, Sità, 2016).