Post 13: The Practice Architectures of Middle Leading (cont.)

In the last post we explained the three dimensions of practice architectures that enable and constrain a practice. In doing this we chose to explain cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political each at a time by separating them from one another. This can just be done analytically and as a way to grasp what they actually mean in relation to enabling and constraining a practice. However, in the blog it is obvious they are not separable in action. It is easy to read how the sayings also effect the doings and relatings.

To go a step further, the theory of practice architectures talks about how the cultural-discursive arrangements occur in semantic space, in the medium of language; the material-economic arrangements occur in physical space-time in the medium of activity or work; and, the social-political arrangements occur in social space in them medium of solidarity and power.

These three spaces overlap one another and to understand middle leaders’ practices we can imagine the need of a communicative space for new forms of discourse, activities and relating as part of the process of change in schools. In an article accepted for publication (Rönnerman, Edwards-Groves & Grootenboer, 2015), that reports on a study where early childhood teachers met regularly in discussion their on-going quality work, the results show that communicative spaces enable teachers to engage in learning-focused meaning making activities connected to the curriculum. It also reveals the practice architectures that enabled the middle leader to take up the responsibility of leading colleagues.

Rönnerman, K., ,Edwards-Groves, C. & Grootenboer, P. (2015 forthcoming). Opening up communicative spaces about quality in early childhood education through middle leadership practices. Nordic Journal of Studies in Education Policies.