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Journal of Educational Change

, Volume 16, Issue 1, pp 53–78 | Cite as

Teachers making sense of result-oriented teams: A cognitive anthropological approach to educational change

  • Sijko J. Wierenga
  • Frans H. Kamsteeg
  • P. Robert Jan Simons
  • Marcel Veenswijk
Article
First Online:

Abstract

Studies on educational change efforts abound but generally limit themselves to post hoc explanations of failure and success. Such explanations are rarely turned into attempts at providing models for predicting change outcomes. The present study tries to develop such a model based on the teachers’ impact analysis of a management-driven intervention, introducing new public management principles at a Dutch school for vocational education and training. The study uses a mixed method approach, the quantitative part of which encompasses the accomplishment of a cultural domain analysis. It appears that in this case the new public management ideology of result-oriented teacher teams contradicts substantial aspects of the existing teachers’ meaning system, and fails to meet not yet satisfied needs within the current meaning system. As a consequence, the relevance of a substantial number of the cognitions that constitute result-oriented teacher teams appears to be limited. The authors discuss the consequences for the chance to successfully change the teachers’ meaning system and draw conclusions that suggest a set of more general building blocks for assessing change policy plans and practices in educational settings.

Keywords

New public management Cognitions Cognitive anthropology Educational change Meaning system Relevance Result-oriented teams School culture 

Abbreviation

ROTT

Result-oriented teacher team

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sijko J. Wierenga
    • 1
  • Frans H. Kamsteeg
    • 1
  • P. Robert Jan Simons
    • 2
  • Marcel Veenswijk
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Organizational SciencesVU University of AmsterdamAmsterdamThe Netherlands
  2. 2.Department of Pedagogical and Educational SciencesUtrecht UniversityUtrechtThe Netherlands

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