Niðurstöður rannsókna á erlendum vettvangi sýna flókið samspil ytri og innri afla
sem hafa áhrif á menntabreytingar. Markmið þessarar greinar er að fjalla um kviku
menntabreytinga í íslenskum framhaldsskólum og sýn skólastjórnenda og kennara í
níu framhaldsskólum á breytingar í kjölfar framhaldsskólalaganna frá 2008 (lög um
framhaldsskóla nr. 92/2008) og aðalnámskrár framhaldsskóla frá árinu 2011 (Menntaog menningarmálaráðuneytið, 2011).
Greinin er byggð á viðtölum við 21 stjórnanda og 22 kennara í níu framhaldsskólum
víðsvegar um landið. Fyrst voru skólarnir valdir með lagskiptu tilviljunarúrtaki.
Þá voru stjórnendur skólanna valdir með sömu aðferð, en kennararnir voru valdir
af handahófi úr hópi kennara. Viðtölin við skólastjórnendur og kennara eru rædd
í ljósi kenninga Coburn (2004) sem skiptir viðbrögðum kennara við ytri kröfum
um breytingar í fimm flokka. Flokkarnir eru: Höfnun (e. rejection), aftenging (e.
decoupling), samhliða virkni (e. parallel structures), aðlögun (e. assimilation), og
inngreyping (e. accommodation). Viðtölin eru einnig skoðuð í ljósi hugmynda Ball,
Maguire og Braun (2012) um útfærslu og framkvæmd stefnu (e. policy enactment).
Niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar benda til þess að viðbrögð skólanna níu og ólíkra hópa
og einstaklinga innan þeirra megi að mestu leyti fella undir fyrrgreinda flokkun
Coburn (2004). Til að ná utan um niðurstöðurnar þurfti að bæta við sjötta flokknum
sem fengið hefur heitið brautryðjendur (e. pioneers). Sýn og viðhorf stjórnenda og
kennara innan sama skóla fór oft ekki saman. Meiri tregða til breytinga kom fram
í viðhorfum kennara en í viðhorfum stjórnenda. Niðurstöðurnar sýna mikilvægi
þess að stjórnendur, kennarar og menntayfirvöld geri sér grein fyrir fjölbreytilegum
viðbrögðum við kröfum menntayfirvalda um breytingar til að skilja og meta stöðuna
hverju sinni. Starfsmenning er ólík milli skóla og milli deilda eða sviða hvers skóla.
Niðurstöðurnar undirstrika jafnframt mikilvægi þess að skilja þau ólíku öfl sem eru
að verki, þannig að yfirstíga megi hindranir og auðvelda breytingar.
The emerging literature highlights a complex interaction of diverse actors and social
structures influencing educational change. The aim of this paper is to shed light on
the dynamics of change in upper secondary education in Iceland and understand how
school leaders, on the one hand, and teachers, on the other, see themselves, and other
educational actors in their schools, responding to the ministerial demand for change.
The findings are based on interviews with 21 school leader and 22 teachers from nine
upper secondary schools all over Iceland. The schools were selected on the basis of
stratified sampling. The school leaders were also selected based on stratified sampling
with regard to the schools’ hierarchical structures. The teachers were, however,
randomly selected on the basis of classroom observation conducted in in the schools.
Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and the main
focus is on Coburn’s (2004) theoretical underpinnings. She identifies five types of
response categories to macro demand for change. These categories are: 1) Rejection,
which occurs when new ideas are dismissed within schools. 2) Decoupling, refers to
symbolic change with no internal influences. 3) Parallel structure, where concurrent
approaches are used to meet different forces and priorities within the schools. 4)
Assimilation, which refers to situations where messages from the macro level are
interoperated and transformed to fit with the existing understanding of educators.
And finally, 5) accommodation, the deconstruction of existing understanding to
charter new information, leading to major change in teaching practices. The data
are also discussed in the light of ideas expounded by Ball et al. (2012) on policy
implementation and policy enactment. The findings indicate that most of the responses
discussed by the participants fall under Coburn’s (2004) categorisation. The data also
brought about an additional sixth category named “pioneering”. The definition of
pioneering is when newly established or recently transformed schools are designed
around a specific vision and certain pedagogy led by the school leaders who are hired
to design the school around new curricular ideas. Among the schools fitting the
parallel structures in the study, at least two different nuances of the other categories
were identified. There was not complete harmony between what the school leaders
perceived and what was discussed by the teachers within the same schools. More
inertia to change was observed in the teachers’ attitudes than among school leaders.
The findings indicate the importance for school leaders, teachers and the Ministry of
Education to be aware of the diverse ideas and different working cultures between
and within the schools to understand the varying views and different dynamics within
the schools. By understanding those dynamics, these stakeholders may become more
competent to facilitate intended change and overcome the diverse obstacles they face
in their everyday work.
