Provoking Change – The Role of Research in Institutional Learning and Organisational Change

Abstract

Negotiated ethnographic research in schools serving economically disadvantaged and culturally diverse communities has a dual purpose. Firstly, it uncovers the frameworks of meaning and the social and educational practices that create and sustain patterns of inequality in student participation and learning. Secondly, at the same time, the researchers work collaboratively with the research subjects (students, teachers, and principals) to change the institutional practices that hinder or diminish the quality of learning made available to the students. This chapter brings to light some of the complexities that arise when the researcher blends the roles of research and professional development. It explores the tensions that arise in the course of research, and the institutional resistances that arise within these very difficult school settings to insulate and reduce the process of school change. The chapter suggests several methodological and theoretical reformulations to the negotiated ethnographic approach that might help overcome some of these difficulties.