ERIC Number: EJ1467244
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0161-956X
EISSN: EISSN-1532-7930
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Measuring Educators' Perceived Benefits of Participation in Educational Improvement Networks
Hanan Perlman1; Anthony S. Bryk2; Jennifer Lin Russell3
Peabody Journal of Education, v100 n1 p82-99 2025
Networked improvement communities (NICs) aim to build capacity for school-based educators to work collaboratively as active agents of problem solving and change. Yet, the benefits accrued to educators from participating in improvement networks have been sparsely researched. Using survey responses from the members of 34 improvement networks, we conceptualize and construct a measure of participatory benefits for school-based educators in improvement networks. This measure provides an indicator of participants' commitment and motivation to engage in collaborative local problem solving and to sustain network membership. We hypothesize that such commitment and motivation are necessary conditions for precipitating changes in schooling practices that will ultimately lead to progress toward network improvement aims (e.g., improved student outcomes). Our analyses provide evidence that our measure of members' participatory benefits can reliably distinguish among individuals both within and between networks. We identify distinct individual and network characteristics that are associated with variations in member reports of their participatory benefits.
Descriptors: Educational Benefits, Teacher Participation, Educational Improvement, Improvement Programs, Networks, Capacity Building, Measures (Individuals), Change Agents, Educational Change, Outcome Measures, Communities of Practice, Cooperative Learning, Expertise
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; 2Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Princeton, NJ; 3Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN