Ecologies of middle leading practices

In this post we propose an interrelationship between the ways in which practices in the Education Complex (professional learning, teaching, leading, researching and student learning) can be understood as related in ecologies of practices. For us, this is an empirical question just as it is a metaphorical one. Our data from our international research project directs us to the traceable interconnectivities between these practices in the Education Complex. We take the Education complex to mean the all-encompassing whole of the kinds of practices that make up the distinctive dimensions of educational work.

Initially, the work of Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson and Hardy (2010) explicitly aligned with Capra’s (2005) eight principles of ecology to demonstrate empirically how practices can be understood as relating to one another within ecologies of practices.  The following table presents a summarised description of practices as they can be understood in terms of the relationships and interrelationships that exist in education and in terms of how these are connected ecologically. For instance our research has shown how education practices (like professional learning), which exists in real situations, shape and are shaped by other education practices (like teaching and leading) when each creates enabling and constraining conditions for the others; these are mutually sustaining when together they form an ecology of practices existing in a dynamic ecological balance.

Table 1: Ecologies of practices - Ecological principles (Kemmis, Edwards-Groves, Wilkinson & Hardy, 2010).

Ecological principles	If practices are living things and ecologies of practices are living systems, then …
Networks	Practices derive their essential properties and their existence from their relationships with other practices.
Nested systems	Different levels and networks of practice are nested within one another.
Interdependence	Practices are dependent on one another in an ecology of practices as are ecologies of practices.
Diversity	An ecology of practices includes many different practices with overlapping ecological functions that can partially replace one another.
Cycles	Some (particular) kinds of matter (or in education – practice architectures, activities, orders or arrangements) cycle through practices or ecologies of practices – for example, as in a food chain.
Flows	Energy flows through an ecology of practices and the practices within it, being transformed from one kind of energy to another (in the way that solar energy is converted into chemical energy by photosynthesis) and eventually being dissipated.
Development	Practices and ecologies of practices develop through stages.
Dynamic balance	An ecology of practices regulates itself through processes of self-organisation, and (up to breaking point) maintains its continuity in relation to internal and outside pressures.

According to Kemmis et al. (2010), from an ecologies of practices perspective, when the external or internal conditions in sites of practice are not hospitable (supportive or nourishing as in a biological nichè) then the other parts of the complex of practices may be threatened and the changing of practices may not be sustainable or even possible. So, understanding the principles of ecologies of practices is important for understanding middle leading practices because when one practice in an ecology of practices becomes developed and strengthened – for example through professional learning – the other parts of the complex of practices may also be developed and strengthened - for example leading or teaching.

The next post will illustrate what this looks like empirically for the work of middle leaders facilitating site based education.

 References:

Capra, Fritjof. (2005). Speaking Nature’s Language: Principles for sustainability. In Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow (Eds.) pp.18-29 Ecological Literacy: Educating our children for a sustainable world. San Francisco: Sierra Book Club Books.

Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J., & Hardy, I. (2012). Ecologies of practices: Learning practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee, & A. Reich (Eds.), Learning Practice.  Dordrecht: Springer.