Narratives of change and collaboration: The role of professional and organizational identities in shaping school improvement plans

Issue title: Talent on Discourse

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Altopiedi and, Mariana | Lavié, José Manuel

Affiliations: University of Seville, Spain | Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain

Note: [] Corresponding author: José M. Lavié, Department of Applied Pedagogy, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Edifici G6, 08193 Bellaterra Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: +34 93 5813191; Fax: +34 93 5813052; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This article discusses the results of two studies of how schools make sense of changes and collaborative work at a historical moment that some might deem critical for both institutional and personal identities. Our interpretive analyses pinpoint the crucial role that both organizational and personal narratives play when interwoven in the process of making sense of externally designed proposals for change, which seem to be embedded in discourses that wholeheartedly celebrate innovation and collaboration as purveyors of social progress and transformation. By underlining the way in which the subjective, organizational, and social orders relate to each other to (re)make sense of the world, our research also illustrates the relationship between narratives of change and counter-narratives, and how they can be developed as both transformative and conservative discursive practices. Implications are also studied in relation to the usefulness of critical discourse analysis for organizational studies and the operationalization of this research approach.

Keywords: Professional and organizational identity, narratives of change, discourse analysis, teacher collaboration

Journal: Intervention Research, vol. 2, no. 1-2, pp. 1-18, 2006