Collective concept formation in educational management: An intervention study in São Paulo, Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12697/eha.2018.6.1.02bKeywords:
concept formation, educational management, sense, meaning, object, clash, stabilizationAbstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how a new concept of educational management was produced in a formative intervention project for manager educators in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. Drawing on Vygotsky and Leontiev, we asked: What is the nature of the interplay between participants’ personal senses and the societal meaning of educational management in the process of collective concept formation? The collective concept formation discourse was analyzed in three steps: initial explication of a raw object, clashes in further elaboration of the raw object, and stabilization of the new concept. The raw object reproduced a taken-for-granted meaning of educational management as promoting conditions for teaching and learning. The clashes occurred mainly between the notion of management for teaching and learning and the notion of management for teaching and learning for community transformation. The stabilization was achieved by a vote and defined the purpose of educational management seemingly as it was already formulated in the raw object. However, this stabilization was temporary and involved attempts to transcend the opposition between the two alternative definitions. Thus, the actual meaning and concept of educational management remained open to further steps. In this paper, we report on how manager educators engage in a collective effort to conceptualize educational management. Our article proposes and tests a new theoretical framework for studying changes in educational management as processes of collective concept formation.
Downloads
References
Anderson, G. L. (1998). Toward authentic participation: Deconstructing the discourses of participatory reforms in education. American Educational Research Journal, 35(4), 571–603. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312035004571
Bartunek, J. M. (1984). Changing interpretive schemes and organizational restructuring: The example of a religious order. Administrative Science Quarterly, 29(3), 355–372. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393029
Brasil, M. (1996). Leis de diretrizes e bases da educação. CULTURA, M. D. E. E. Brasil: Ministério da Educação e Cultura.
Bush, T. (2014). Emotional leadership: A viable alternative to the bureaucratic model? Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 42(2), 163–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213512742
Cussins, A. (1992). Content, embodiment and objectivity: The theory of cognitive trails. Mind, 101(404), 651–688. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/101.404.651
Davydov, V. V. (1990). Types of generalization in instruction: Logical and psychological problems in the structuring of school curricula. Reston: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
De Faria, A. L. G. (1999). As contribuição dos parques infantis de Mário de Andrade para a construção de uma pedagogia da educação infantil [Mario de Andrade lasteparkide panus laste haridusteaduse rajamisse]. Educação e Sociedade, 69, 60–91.
Engeström, Y. (2007). Putting Vygotsky to work: The change laboratory as an application of double stimulation. In H. Daniels, M. Cole, & J. V. Wertsch (eds.), The Cambridge companion to Vygotsky (pp. 363–382). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Engeström, Y. (2014). Collective concept formation as creation at work. In A. Sannino & V. Ellis (eds.), Learning and collective creativity: Activity-theoretical and sociocultural studies (pp. 234–257). New York: Routledge.
Engeström, Y., Pasanen, A., Toiviainen, H., & Haavisto, V. (2005). Expansive learning as collaborative concept formation at work. In K. Yamazumi, Y. Engeström, & H. Daniels (eds.), New learning challenges: Going beyond the industrial age system of school and work (pp. 47–77). Osaka: Japan Kansai University Press.
Engeström, Y., & Sannino, A. (2012). Concept formation in the wild. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 201–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2012.690813
Godoy, A. P. (2011). "Re-visitando" a escola e o ensino municipal de São Paulo na ditadura militar [Tagasivaade koolielule ja munitsipaalharidusele São Paulos sõjalise diktatuuri aastatel]. Simpósio Nacional de História. São Paulo: ANPUH-SP.
Greeno, J. G. (2012). Concepts in activities and discourses. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 310–313. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2012.691934
Grimshaw, J. (1990). Argument structure. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Hatzopoulus, P., Kollias, A., & Kikis-Papadakis, K. (2015). School leadership for equity and learning and the question of school autonomy. Estonian Journal of Education, 3(3), 65–79. https://doi.org/10.12697/eha.2015.3.1.03b
Hutchins, E. (2005). Material anchors for conceptual blends. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(10), 1555–1577. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2004.06.008
Hutchins, E. (2012). Concepts in practice as sources of order. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 19(3), 314–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/10749039.2012.694006
Ignelzi, M. (2000). Meaning-making in the learning and teaching process. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 2000(82), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/tl.8201
Jones, C., Maoret, M., Massa, F. G., & Svejenova, S. (2012). Rebels with a cause: Formation, contestation, and expansion of the de novo category 'modern architecture', 1870–1975. Organization Science, 23(6), 1523–1545.
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0701
Lantz-Andersson, A., Linderoth, J., & Säljö, R. (2009). What's the problem? Meaning making and learning to do mathematical word problems in the context of digital tools. Instructional Science, 37(4), 325–343. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-008-9050-0
Lemos, M. (2017). Collaborative agency in educational management: A joint object for school and community transformation. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 57(6), 555–566. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034-759020170604
Lemos, M., & Liberali, F. (in press). The creative chain of activities: Educational management and community transformation. International Journal of Educational Management.
Lemos, M., Liberali, F., & Toiviainen, H. (in progress). The creative chain as a possibility of overcoming educational management encapsulation.
Leontiev, A. N. (1978). Activity, consciousness and personality. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Liberali, F. (2012). Gestão escolar em cadeias criativas [Kooli juhtimine loomingulistes jadades]. Brasil: Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecno lógico.
Liberali, F., Borelli, S., & Lima, M. E. (2015). Gestão escolar em cadeias criativas: Um processo para transformações escolares [Kooli juhtimine loomingulistes jadades: kooli muutumise protsess]. In K. A. Silva, M. Maristella-de-Andrade, & C. A. P.
Filho (Orgs), A formação de professores de línguas: políticas, projetos e parcerias (pp. 93–141). Campinas-SP: Pontes Editora.
Lumby, J. (2012). Leading organizational culture: Issues of power and equity. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 40(5), 576–591. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143212451173
Mueller, R. A. (2013). A general model of organizational values in educational administration. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 42(5), 640–656. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213510504
Nersessian, N. J. (2008). Creating scientific concepts. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Orlikowski, W. J., & Gash, D. C. (1994). Technological frames: Making sense of information technology in organizations. ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), 12(2), 174–207. https://doi.org/10.1145/196734.196745
Sannino, A., Engeström, Y., & Lemos, M. (2016). Formative interventions for expansive learning and transformative agency. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 25(4), 599–633. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2016.1204547
Scott, P. (1998). Teacher talk and meaning making in science classrooms: A Vygotskian analysis and review. Studies in Science Education, 32(1), 45–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057269808560127
SME (1995). Memorial do Ensino Municipal [Linna haridusmuuseum]. São Paulo: Secretaria Municipal de Educação.
Smith, B. C. (1998). On the origin of objects. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Toh, Y., Hung, W. L. D., Chua, P. M.-H., He, S., & Jamaludin, A. (2016). Pedagogical reforms within a centralised-decentralised system: A Singapore's perspective to diffuse 21st century learning innovations. International Journal of Educational Management, 30(7), 1247–1267. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEM-10-2015-0147
Toulmin, S. (2003). The uses of argument. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1987). The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. New York, London: Plenum Press.
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. London: Sage.
Weick, K. E. (2001). Making sense of the organization. Oxford: Blackwell.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The authors who publish in Eesti Haridusteaduste Ajakiri. Estonian Journal of Education agree to the following terms:
- This journal provides immediate open access to its content. All the articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License.
- Authors grant the journal right of (1) first publication and distribution of the article, (2) making it available to public, (3) public presentation.
- Authors have the right to enter into separate contractual arrangements for posting the article to an institutional repository or publish it in a book with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted to post citations from their work online (e.g. on their website) with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal (see Open Access).
