Modes of Learning in Educational Organizations: Theoretical Considerations, Methodological Approaches and Empirical Findings

Abstract

In this article I deal with the question of starting points and dynamics of learning processes in pedagogical organizations using the example of schools. Starting with a brief discussion of established approaches to determine organizational learning, I use the idea of the organization as an activity system to outline a concept of school organizations. Based on this heuristic, I present a methodological approach to the analysis of organizational learning processes, and present and discuss empirical findings based on the analysis of group discussions and expert interviews using the documentary method. In the triangulation of the reconstruction of learning orientations of members of a single school organization (a group of teachers and the school's principal) and their positioning in the activity system of the school, an organizational mode of learning comes into view.