Solving Problems Together: Findings from the Early Stages of a Networked Improvement Community.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This three-article dissertation is a case study of the initial stages of a Networked Improvement Community built around the practices in personalized learning schools. Networked Improvement Communities (NICs) are a type of research-practice partnership that tackle how to sustain and scale change across school communities. Research on how they are initiated is needed as this model is adapted across a range of contexts. Case studies in particular provide the depth of exploration to understand what aspects of the NIC model worked in a particular context, for whom, and under what conditions.This case study focuses on the Personalization in Practice–Networked Improvement Community (PiPNIC). Each article then takes up one of the three guiding questions of NICs: what problem(s) are we trying to solve?, whose expertise is needed to solve these problems?, and what are the social arrangements that will enable this work? The first article examines how the PiPNIC initiation team identified a problem of practice through radical listening to educators and educational leaders across the state. Drawing on qualitative data, the analysis traces how the activities of the initiation team narrowed the problem space and selected a problem of practice. The second article examines how the NIC activities supported participants in sharing their problem-based expertise. This qualitative study illustrates how the NIC created the conditions for ideas to be generated, selected, and integrated through the coupling of network and team activities and authentic design tasks. Finally, the third article explores how collaborative design fosters help-based interactions, and how these social arrangements provide the conditions for the relational trust necessary to solve hard problems. Each article addresses practical and theoretical considerations for initiating NICs, contributing specifically to the current NIC initiation framework. By organizing this inquiry as an instrumental case study, the goal is to produce insight in the spirit of continuous improvement, rather than an evaluation of whether NICs “work.” As such, this case contributes to the collective effort to leverage the wisdom of research, practice, and design knowledge to improve schools.