Understanding distributed leadership practices in and around teacher teams 5 97 leadership between collaborative innovation-oriented teacher teams be understood from multiple sociocultural context levels? We aim to provide insights to teachers, school principals, and teacher educators into how distributed leadership practices within teacher teams are embedded in sociocultural contexts. 5.3. Methods 5.3.1. Context of the study In 2016, the OECD highlighted that the educational quality of Dutch schools could be further improved by strengthening collaboration within schools. An independent foundation developed a program with this aim. The program distinguishes from other programs by its large scale. So far, more than a thousand Dutch primary, secondary, and vocational education schools have implemented it voluntarily. Because it is implemented by a large number of schools, the impact of the program is evaluated. Our study is part of the larger research project in which this program aimed at collaborative innovation was evaluated. The program uses ‘Agile’ principles, meaning a team-based approach, including the teachers and school principal(s), to improve processes step by step (see Rigby et al., 2016). The method is based on cycles of eight weeks and at the core of it, there are four tools: (1) Stand-up sessions of fifteen minutes, where teachers and school principals meet each other and where ideas are translated into jointly goals and action plans. (2) Within-school lesson visits to observe colleagues. (3) Codesigning lessons. (4) Students’ voice, a structured approach to get the students’ view as a source of inspiration. In terms of the time allocation, firstly, a start team is trained by a coach from the external program, who remains involved for two years. This team includes 2-3 coachteachers (teachers with a coach role) and their school principal.Afterward, smaller groups of teachers are formed (8-10 persons) within school and within each team a coach-teacher is present, who helps the other teachers to collaboratively work on education with the four tools in, preferably, a weekly routine. The school principal is expected to be quite actively involved in the teams and practicing of the tools but not steering. 5.3.2. Design and procedure With our study we aim to contribute to understanding of how distributed leadership practices within teacher teams are embedded in a sociocultural context. To answer our research question, we collected both quantitative and qualitative data. With regard to
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