School-to-School Collaboration

School-To-School Collaboration. Learning Across International Contexts edited by Armstrong and Brown is a brilliant resource for anyone in education - network novice, experienced school leader or policymaker. Personally, I enjoyed reading the unique experiences of the thirteen case studies, and what they shared in common.

The case studies are a rich resource for anyone interested in drawing on the power of networks and school-to-school collaboration for system-wide improvement of outcomes, equity, teacher relationships and engagement. The book also contains a well-balanced, nuanced and insightful discussion of theory and practice complemented by practical recommendations. The sharing of a diverse range of systems, experiences and countries (twelve school systems across five continents) yields a rich tapestry of school-to-school collaboration and partnership examples that are woven together through Hood’s cohesion/regulation matrix. In short, the book is a treasure trove of theoretical and practical information.

This is timely and important given the rise in the use of networks in educational systems across the world. Armstrong and Brown, in pulling these impressive case studies together into one book advance the field. No matter what country you live in, role you hold in education (classroom teacher, school leader or policymaker), experience you have with school-to-school collaborations or networks this book is a must read.

-- Alexandra Harper, PhD Candidate Western Sydney University

Fostering stronger collaboration within and between schools is a well-established aspiration for education systems internationally. But what does it look like in different kinds of national contexts? What can be learned from their similarities and differences? And how can effective school-to-school collaborations be enabled and supported within different kinds of systems? This edited collection from Paul Wilfred Armstrong and Chris Brown examines these questions in rich detail by bringing together examples from 12 different school systems and one international school network. It sheds light on the nuanced dynamics and subtle complexities of educational collaboration within specific cases from countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania.

As well as illuminating the richness of these various examples, this book also allows the reader to make sense of them in relation to the characteristics of the systems within which they are situated. The book uses a common framework (The Social Cohesion Regulation Matrix) to categorise the case-study examples into four different types of systems according to their level of social cohesion and social regulation. In this way, it is possible to draw out insights about enabling effective school-to-school collaboration from within and across the four different types of systems. For readers who are also familiar with a previous volume with a similar organising structure that was focused on evidence-informed practice, the potential for connected insights into the relationship between collaboration and evidence use in different system context is an important additional benefit.

-- Associate Professor Mark Rickinson, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

This 13-chapter edited volume is a well-organized, conceptually coherent, comparative international look at school-to-school collaboration. In their introduction, editors Armstrong and Brown provide a very helpful overview of what can be learned from their diverse cases; in particular they emphasize that one key goal of the book is to illustrate that collaborations take certain forms (and not others) thanks to particular policy pre-conditions. 

The emphasis on policy and context means that the book resists giving one-size-fits-all recommendations and gives a complex view of networked collaboration. The chapters discuss both enablers and barriers to collaboration in their particular case studies and each chapter concludes with recommendations for policy and practice. The parallel organization for each chapter is a strength and means that both readers who examine the whole manuscript and readers who select specific chapters will take similar benefit from the book: concrete, empirical examination of collaboration and the policies that support or constrain it. This is a scholarly book, and each chapter ends with its own list of references to previous research; it is also a book that appeals to a wide audience, including policymakers and third-sector NGO actors looking to apply lessons from these contexts to their own. The book as a whole concludes with a 7-page index, which will aid readers looking for particular cross-case themes.

Readers interested in the potential of networks should read this book; the cases are diverse and describe a range of relationships within, between, and among schools. Many chapters discuss the potential of collaboration to foster school improvement but others argue that collaboration holds a wide range of potential benefits. The editors’ and authors’ application of the cohesion/regulation matrix, and its typology of hierarchist, fatalist, egalitarian, and individualist systems, provides a transparent (and debatable) entry point to understanding that not all collaborations begin from the same starting point or pursue the same ends. This diversification of the research and policy conversation about school to school collaborations is welcome. 

-- Joseph Flessa, Interim Associate Dean, Programs, University of Tor