Moving from individual to organizational learning

This presentation elaborates on how teachers in the R&D project, in cooperation with the researchers, strived to develop their school as a learning organization. This involved moving focus from individual learning towards the development of a culture for knowledge sharing. The school was organized in three teacher teams. We collected data during knowledge sharing activities and interviewed teachers about their experiences during these activities. Due to new demands placed upon schools and teachers in our current learning society, teachers are expected to learn continuously. Faced with continuous demands for change and developments, the teachers in our school voiced barriers for knowledge sharing. Teachers reported little time to interact with colleagues and they expressed a wish for more time for knowledge sharing. They felt overwhelmed with expectations and although teachers emphasized the importance of knowledge sharing, they hardly found time for this. On this background, teachers may come to find themselves in a situation where each teacher by and large works individually to meet challenges and demands. Thus, the overall aim of developing the school as a learning organization may be at risk. A linchpin for moving individual learning to organizational learning is dissemination, the sharing of knowledge, skills and insights. Professional development efforts are often seen to be directed toward individual teachers, for example by attending courses. The implied assumption is that teachers eventually share their individual learning with colleagues and thus effect change at the organizational level. Although individual learning is a necessary first step, it is insufficient to achieve organizational learning. Unless individuals disseminate or share what they have learned, “insights gained from action and reflection are not fully realized at the organizational level” (Shaw & Perkins, 1992, p. 178). In its strongest form, dissemination is more that a one-way relay of information; it is an extension of the reflective process, moving reflection from the individual to the group level (Collinson & Cook, 2003). We discuss how teachers in our school moved from individual learning towards learning at group level by allowing knowledge created by individuals to crystallize at group level in the school. By the use of the theoretical construct of ‘intersubjectivity’ we illustrate different paths from individual learning to organizational learning.