Mötesplats skolutveckling Om hur samverkan med forskare kan bidra till att utveckla pedagogers kompetens att bedriva utvecklingsarbete

Sammanfattning: The main aim of this thesis is to illuminate how researchers might provide support to the improvement of educators' competence, in a school development context. The thesis also sheds light on conditions and obstacles for such development. The theoretical approach derives inspiration from several lines of thought but above all from action theory and theories on adult learning and development. The approach of the thesis can be characterized as “contextual-constructivist” or “social constructivist”. Four different forms of collaboration between researchers and educators are studied and compared. The methods used were interviews, questionnaires and document study.The similarities between the different types of collaboration are striking. The educators’ competence for action and development seems to have increased in all types of collaboration, for example towards increased communicative and meta-cognitive competence. This, however, cannot be attributed solely to the researchers; rather it seems to be a result of the whole interplay with the environment that was initiated by the collaboration. One group of educators also turned out to act as bridge-builders between the researchers and their own colleagues. Further, the educators have had access to various tangible tools, which have appeared to be useful not only in developmental work but also in the everyday work. Finally, the utility aspect of school research is discussed, as well as the double, sometimes triple, helix of learning and developmental processes that educators may share as a result of the collaboration with researchers.