Increasing the impact of a Master’s programme on teacher leadership and school development by means of boundary crossing

Abstract

In this case study, we investigate how the development and impact of teacher leadership through a Master’s programme can be supported by a design that encourages boundary crossing activities between schools and universities. The case study focuses on 42 experienced teachers from three vocational colleges who were promoted to senior teacher positions and participated in a Master’s programme. Through individual and focus group interviews, data were collected on how boundary crossing activities can connect professional development and school development, and on favourable conditions for effective boundary crossing. The study shows that strategic alignment and shared ownership between university and school, a collective approach with multiple participants from one school, and the use of boundary objects, created the conditions through which the Master’s programme could serve as a catalyst, stimulating innovation of work practices and development of new leadership practices. The leadership of the senior teachers initiated a development process that shifted from formally mandated forms of leadership to more culturally embedded forms of leadership. This case study leads to a new understanding of design criteria for Master’s programmes and boundary objects that can support the process of developing teacher leadership within schools by facilitating boundary crossing between university and school.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marco Snoek

Marco Snoek is a professor at the University for Applied Sciences Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. His research work focuses on teacher development, teacher education, teacher leadership and teacher research, and on learning environments and organizational contexts that support this.

Mascha Enthoven

Mascha Enthoven is a researcher at the University for Applied Sciences Hogeschool van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]. Her current work addresses philosophical and practical issues in education including professional development through teacher research and reflection, teachers’ and students’ abilities in allocating and regulating attention and awareness, and the implications of the demand characteristics of high and low resilient pupils.

Joseph Kessels

Joseph Kessels is a professor of Educational Leadership at the Welten Institute for Learning, Teaching and Technology of the Open University Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]. His research interest is in professional development of teachers and the role of distributed leadership, which fits in the broader context of the connection between learning environments, professional development, knowledge productivity, innovation, self-direction and emancipation.

Monique Volman

Monique Volman is a professor and programme leader of the Educational Sciences research programme at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education of the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]. In her work, she aims to build bridges between educational theory and practice by applying and further developing methodologies for collaborative design research, in which teachers and researchers collaboratively develop and evaluate theoretically-informed innovations.