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Building communities and sharing knowledge: a study into teachers working together across national boundaries

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cam.restrictionthesis_access_embargoed
cam.supervisorFrost, David
dc.contributor.authorUnderwood, Matthew James
dc.date.accessioned2017-11-20T09:19:30Z
dc.date.available2017-11-20T09:19:30Z
dc.date.issued2017-10-04
dc.date.updated2017-11-17T19:59:15Z
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation explores the types of professional communities that are built when teachers work in initiatives that, in various forms, link them to teachers from other countries. In doing so it explores the types of knowledge that may be exchanged by the building of these communities and the value that teachers put upon these different forms of knowledge. Therefore, this study is situated in the broad theoretical context of discussions related to the building of professional communities but explores this within a specifically international context. The most significant findings that this dissertation identifies are: that the teachers involved built the professional communities that are most important to them in more exploratory ways and with more agency than is suggested by other related research, and in connection to this that those professional communities that the participants attached most significance to were consistently alternative to the immediate workplace. It was also found that whilst the teachers involved in this study problematised the possibility of directly transferring specific classroom strategies, stories about teaching were seen by all to be useful vehicles for exchanging other forms of knowledge, for enabling affirmation and for co-constructing moral purpose. These findings have potential implications for policy and practice as they indicate that structures that focus exclusively on developing communities within schools may need to be enriched by those that provide teachers with the flexibility to discover and build communities in alternative ways too. The primary data collection method used when conducting this research was interview. The participants who were interviewed came from two countries, namely England and Macedonia. This entirely qualitative approach is positioned within an interpretivist paradigm. However, it is argued that contributions to theoretical debates regarding the nature of professional communities can still be made.
dc.identifier.doi10.17863/CAM.15624
dc.identifier.urihttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/269404
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisher.collegeWolfson
dc.publisher.departmentEducation
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cambridge
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserveden
dc.rights.urihttps://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/en
dc.subjectprofessional communities
dc.subjectteacher leadership
dc.subjectknowledge
dc.subjectMacedonia
dc.subjecteducation
dc.subjectteaching
dc.subjectteachers
dc.subjectcomparative education research
dc.subjectqualitative research
dc.subjectinterview
dc.subjectcommunities of practice
dc.subjectnetworking
dc.subjectnetworking theories
dc.subjectinternational teacher leadership
dc.subjectprofessional development
dc.subjectnon-positional leadership
dc.subjecteducation development
dc.subjectdocument analysis
dc.subjectknowledge communities
dc.subjectaffirmation
dc.subjectqualitative
dc.subjectFormer Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia
dc.subjectBalkans
dc.subjectFormer Yugoslavia
dc.titleBuilding communities and sharing knowledge: a study into teachers working together across national boundaries
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
dc.type.qualificationtitleDoctor of Philosophy (education)

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