A partnership of schools, researchers and consulting institutions is currently engaged in enacting a fundamental change in upper secondary education (roughly equivalent to ‘high school’ in the US) in the Netherlands.

This change was initiated by APS National Centre for School Improvement based on its experience with whole school improvement. A few outlines were formulated (“fresh ideas”) regarding the field of education (knowledge production by students, recognition of talent), the non-linear nature of a developmental process requiring cooperation with schools, and the on-site monitoring by researchers. A new partnership undertook the commitment to get this job done.

Fundamental change implies disturbance and imbalance, which influence each partner differently and affect the partnership (Engeström, 1987). Collective learning can be considered as one way to prevent disintegration or a complete breakdown (Dixon, 2002). The change process is also seen as embedded in the context, consisting of dynamic cycles, feedback loops and interdisciplinary collaboration (Gibbons, et al., 1994).

This report encompasses three years of collaborative efforts in an ongoing change process, and is focused on the development of fresh educational ideas within two secondary schools and the communication within the partnership. It demonstrates the results of implementing new concepts in practice by means of the relationship between school and coaches. It also shows how hard it is to keep the communication going between partners who are mainly focused on what they perceive as their "core business” and the culture of each partner organization. It appears to be uncommon that the information generated by the researchers is used for decision-making in the development process. It does, however, reveal the beginnings of mutual learning based on research findings within the partnership that resembles the “intensified contacts” in the life of a research project (Huberman, 1990), and this gives only a glimmer of the collective learning that was the original objective of the partnership.

AERA 2006 Mart Petri