Leading Learning by Networking Erasmus Project

Project Title

Leading Learning by Networking

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

Teacher networking in schools has been considered to be one of the effective ways of professional development and increasing expertise at schools in recent years. When talking about professional networks in our project, we mean open, continuously cooperating groups of teachers within one school and across various schools sharing their experience and materials and cooperating in terms of innovations and development of teaching and learning. Many researchers as well as policymakers underline the importance of internal and external support of networks. It is therefore essential to prepare school leaders in relation to their competence to lead and manage a network of teachers.
The main objectives of the project were (1) to develop competencies of headteachers of primary and lower secondary schools for managing professional networks of teachers focused (not only) on the area of diversity management at schools and building a culture of networking at schools; (2) to develop competencies of the trainers of headteachers in the educational topic of professional networks by developing the training modules; (3) to promote cooperation and exchange of experience among the participating headteachers and their trainers. The main target groups are headteachers and their trainers. In the second sequence, the target group also includes teachers particularly involved in the exchange of experience and improving the quality of teaching through participation in the professional networks aimed at managing diversity at schools.
The project consortium consisted of six partners (CZ, SI, SE, BE, UK, ES), the Czech partner (Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, Department of Educational Sciences) was the project coordinator.
The project partners were:
NATIONAL SCHOOL OF LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION, Kranj, Slovenia
UPPSALA UNIVERSITET, Centre of Educational Management, Uppsala, Sweden
UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN, Faculty of Social Sciences, Antwerp, Belgium
The UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON, Institute of Education, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom
UNIVERSIDAD DE MALAGA, Didáctica y organización escolar, Málaga, Spain.
The project partners are involved in developing and realizing nationally recognized training courses/programs for headteachers, and they cooperate with entities involved in the development of school policy. All the partner institutions have been in long-term cooperation with a high number of schools and headteachers in research and development projects, too.
The methodology of the project included activities as following: Website and communication platform preparation, theory on networking review, assessment of the headteachers/school needs and the situation in involved countries – qualitative study (interview with headteachers) and quantitative study (questionnaire), development of Baseline Study, training modules preparation, training modules piloting, national workshops and Handbook for headteacher trainers´ development. Selected headteachers in each country co-operated on the interviews, examples of good practice, giving feedback, etc.
The main project outputs are Theoretical Framework (text file), a comparative study based on qualitative analysis (text file), a comparative study based on quantitative analysis (text file), complete Baseline Study titled LEADING LEARNING NETWORKS IN EDUCATION – Theoretical Framework and School Leaders’ Perspectives across Europe (Online version with ISBN 978-80-210-9591-5, paperback with ISBN 978-80-210-9589-2) summarizing theoretical and empirical data included suggestions for training modules (printed in English and all national languages), Handbook – training modules (flash disks). The quality of the outputs has been reviewed by the experienced independent external evaluator. The feedback from headteachers, workshops, and conference participants has been incorporated. The outputs are promoted through the project website, national workshops, international symposia at ENIRDELM conferences (2018 and 2019), closing conference (2020), professional journal /Devlin, L. (2019). Making the Case for Enhanced School Leadership Capacity in a Networked Education System, Vodenje 44(3), 43–60/, etc. The project products will remain available on the website of the project even after the termination of the project, they will be available on flash disks, they can be used by a number of educational institutions in many countries around the world.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 206312,29 Eur

Project Coordinator

Masarykova univerzita & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• UPPSALA UNIVERSITET
• SOLA ZA RAVNATELJE
• UNIVERSIDAD DE MALAGA
• UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON
• UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN