Building networks for change: how ed-tech coaches broker information to lead instructional reform

In the past decade, school districts have faced increasing pressure from federal and state policies to use technology to innovate teaching and learning. In response to these pressures, districts are spending billions of dollars to outfit their schools with new technologies (e.g., laptops, iPads, broadband internet, new software), and to hire expert teachers to work as education technology coaches or “ed-tech coaches” to guide teachers in using technology creatively and effectively in the classroom. While ed-tech coaching programs are gaining prominence among districts, these programs make strong assumptions about the capacity of ed-tech coaches to shift teacher practice that are grounded in little evidence. In this dissertation, I focus on the instructional leadership responsibilities of ed-tech coaches, especially with regards to understanding how these coaches circulate information on instructional change among central office staff, school leaders, and teachers to facilitate district-wide improvements in instruction. I explore the instructional leadership of these coaches in a mid-sized urban district that recently completed a one-to-one rollout of laptops and iPads to support instruction of the Common Core State Standards. In this reform setting, I use social network theory and methods, and along with complementary qualitative data collected from four case schools, to describe how ed-tech coaches broker information on instructional change between and among central office administrators and schools and the organizational conditions that shape their brokering practices.过去十年来，美国各学区持续面临联邦与州级政策施加的日益增长的压力，要求其依托技术革新教学模式与学习体验。为应对此类政策要求，各学区斥资数十亿美元为学校配备各类新技术（例如笔记本电脑、iPad、宽带互联网、新型软件），同时聘请资深教师担任教育技术教练（education technology coach，简称ed-tech coach），指导教师在课堂上创造性且高效地运用技术手段。尽管教育技术教练项目在各学区中愈发受到重视，但此类项目对教育技术教练推动教师教学实践变革的能力做出了较强假设，而此类假设几乎缺乏实证依据支撑。本博士论文聚焦于教育技术教练的教学领导力职责，尤其关注此类教练如何在学区行政人员、学校管理者与教师之间传播教学变革相关信息，以推动学区范围内的教学质量提升。本研究以某中型城市学区为研究场景，该学区近期刚完成一对一笔记本电脑与iPad设备的部署，以支撑共同核心州立标准（Common Core State Standards）的教学实施。在此改革场景下，本研究结合社会网络理论与研究方法，辅以从四所案例学校收集的补充定性数据，旨在阐释教育技术教练如何在学区行政管理人员与各学校之间搭建教学变革信息的传播桥梁，以及影响其此类中介行为的组织环境因素。