Professional development is conceived of as a complex and life-long learning process, resulting from the meaningful interaction between individual teachers and their professional environment (Kelchtermans, 1993a; Clement & Vandenberghe, 2000). As Hargreaves (1995) has argued, this development process not only encompasses a technical dimension (knowledge and skills of teaching) but also a moral, an emotional and a political dimension. In this article, we focus on the often neglected ‘political learning’ that takes place as teachers develop professionally especially in the first phase of their career. Studies on the micropolitics of schools as organisations have shown that the behaviour of organisational members is strongly influenced by their different interests (Ball, 1987, 1994; Blase, 1991, 1997; Hoyle, 1982). Micropolitics then refers to the strategies and tactics used by individuals and groups in an organisation to further their interests (Hoyle, 1982). However, as Blase (1991) rightly argues, issues of interest, power, and control do not only refer to tension, conflict, struggle or rivalry but also encompass collaboration or coalition building in order to achieve certain valued goals. Understanding these processes implies looking for the personal or collectively shared interpretations of these political processes by the members of the organisation. More specifically it means looking at their choices, values, interests, motives as well as at their individual career stories, intertwined as they are with the history of the school.In our analysis, we subscribe to the idea that the actions and thoughts of organisational members are to an important degree determined by interests, but we explicitly link this idea to the concept of ‘working conditions’. All teachers hold beliefs about what entails good teaching and what conditions they perceive as necessary or desirable in order to properly perform their professional tasks. ‘‘Properly’’ then means both ‘‘effectively’’ (achieving the desired outcomes) and ‘‘satisfying’’ to the actor. These desirable and/or necessary working conditions may concern the material and infrastructural conditions, the quality of the professional relationships within the school, the school’s ‘mission statement’, etc. (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002; Kelchtermans & Vandenberghe, 1998) and they operate as professional interests to the people involved. Through micropolitical actions teachers will strive to establish the desired working conditions, to safeguard them when they are threatened or to restore them when they have been removed. Micropolitical action we thus understand as those actions that aim at establishing, safeguarding or restoring the desired working conditions. This definition makes it possible to ‘read’ (interpret) specific behaviour in micropolitical terms.Texto integralhttp://ppw.kuleuven.be/cobv/pdfs/IJER.pdf
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João Marques passando os olhos por... terrear.blogspot.com
Micropolítica e Desenvolvimento Profissional
http://terrear.blogspot.com/2011/01/micropolitica-e-desenvolvimento.html
January 30 2011, 1:02pm | Comments »
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João Marques passando os olhos por... terrear.blogspot.com
As Duas Faces da Micropolitica
http://terrear.blogspot.com/2011/01/as-duas-faces-da-micropolitica.html
A reading of the contributions in this special feature led the present author to distinguish between two 'faces' of micropolitics as an area of enquiry. 'Policy micropolitics' is concerned to maintain a distinction between micropolitics and management and is focused on the relationship between micropolitics in the school and the wider macropolitical context. 'Management micropolitics' does not draw such a clear distinction between micropolitics and management and is focused on the strategies used by school leaders and teachers in pursuit of their, sometimes conflicting, interests. The paper considers the other contributions in terms of this distinction according to a number of emergent themes, i.e. boundary, professional expertise, participation, ambiguity, and the management of change. A final section takes seriously the implications of micropolitics for school leadership and offers some observations on its place in leadership development programmes.Fonte
January 30 2011, 12:56pm | Comments »
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João Marques passando os olhos por... terrear.blogspot.com
Micropolítica e capital social
http://terrear.blogspot.com/2010/05/micropolitica-e-capital-social.html
Em seu texto "Micropolítica y capital social: flujos de conocimiento y redes de comunicación en la organización escolar", Terrén destaca a importância da micropolítica de colaboração. Para isso, parte de dois pressupostos: o primeiro é de que toda política da organização é, basicamente, uma gestão do conhecimento e da informação que se produzem em seio interior; o segundo, que é o objeto da organização, não são indivíduos, mas redes. Defende, precisamente, como o conhecimento de que deve fazer uso a organização educacional para enfrentar as transformações já não é (ou não é sozinho) o requintado conhecimento produzido nas instâncias administrativas ou acadêmicas. Os próprios centros educativos são produtores de um conhecimento sobre si mesmos (o conhecimento organizacional), que todos devem aprender a gestionar e valorizar tanto ou mais que o conhecimento explícito para adequar-se à diversidade do seu contexto específico. O autor defende a tese de que a capacidade de adaptação da organização às mudanças depende do que denomina "o capital social interno", base potencial para fazer acontecer um projeto comum que permita não simplesmente resistir às transformações existentes, mas traduzi-las em oportunidades de melhoria na qualidade do trabalho e liderá-las.Fonte
May 12 2010, 5:21pm | Comments »
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