Dissertation 17082006 No Appendices

A “Protean” career and its impact on e-learning
A synthesis of personal studies and helping the learning school
Mr Eric A Knutsen
September 2006
MSc E-learning, Multimedia and Consultancy
Supervising Tutor: Prof Brian Hudson

Division of Education and Humanities, Sheffield Hallam University
Author: Eric A Knutsen
Qualifications: BA (Hons) Classics, Pacific Lutheran University

Financial Planning Certificate
PGCE, Sheffield Hallam University
Job Title: Assistant Headteacher, School B
Supervisor: Prof Brian Hudson
This dissertation illustrates a “protean” career, highlighting its impact on

e-learning developments overseen along this pathway, chosen for
professional advancement. The theoretical framework is founded on a
literature review characterising and synthesising ideas related to the
‘Protean contract’: cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics,
team working, learning culture and learning technologies.
This study adopts an autobiographical approach to inquiry, presenting

data that has been gathered through a portfolio of project reviews.
Successes and learning points are equally reflected upon, using a PPDP
(personal and professional development planning process) framework.
This reflexive discourse has resulted in the initiation of actions for similar
projects in two different contexts.
As a teacher enrolled on the MSc in e-Learning, Multimedia, Consultancy

and Change, I describe how I have fostered opportunities for multi-
layered growth, ranging from personal to colleague to organisational
levels of growth, in different contexts for personal and professional
development. In having organisational aims taken forward, my schools
have benefited from this evolving maturity, through projects in which my
own thinking on e-learning has progressed.
The concept of the protean contract, through which the individual is

responsible for one’s own professional growth, is developed and
contrasted with more traditional ideas of job progression. I set this
contract before the reader as an alternative vocational pathway, found to
be a more satisfying focus than straightforward, organisationally-biased
employee promotion.
i
Contents
Description Page
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
Chapter 2 Literature Review 6
Chapter 3 A Personal “Protean” Career 24
Chapter 4 Technology College Status, execution of targets 33
Chapter 5 Development of school administrative capability 38
Chapter 6 My growth as educational practitioner 42
Chapter 7 Assistant headteacher, in charge of e-Learning 46
Chapter 8 Evaluation 52
Chapter 9 Reflection and discussion 53
Chapter 10 Summary 55
Appendices
A – Chronology of Development
B – Intranet User Guide, School A
C – Intranet User Guide (Admin Users), School A
D – Intranet User Guide (Students), School A
E – Staff Intranet User Guide, School B
F – Presentation used for VLE Training, School B
G – VLE Training Feedback Form, School B
H – Consent Form, School B
I – VLE Training Feedback Results
Figures used iii
References cited iv
ii
Chapter 1 – Introduction
Dissertation rationale and objectives

A description for this dissertation is a career development profile, with key elements drawn
from my career to date as a classroom teacher of ICT, head of department, and assistant
headteacher in the secondary school environment.
These roles have been held contemporaneously with studies through the MSc E-learning,
Multimedia and Consultancy (ELMAC) programme at Sheffield Hallam University and
during developments at the two schools employing me. These developments allowed the
application of the skills and change theory in practice learned through the programme to
develop over time.
It is with this in mind that the synthesis of my schools’, students’ and own learning and
context will be described, allowing others who are called upon to lead developments in e-
learning an insight to constructs that are based on less experimental methods than those I have
employed.
I will also be exploring the wider impact of such a path on several levels, including my own
students (11-18), colleagues in school, and the schools as organisations.
Questions for this dissertation

1. What chain(s) of developments led to the most improvement in professional growth?
2. What factors were possible considerations when judging the endeavours at the time as
being worthwhile, especially given the teaching workload at the time?
3. What were the ways of working that can be substantiated through the current body of
research as being good practice undertaken at the time to fulfil the potential of the above
developments?
4. What key strategies can be extrapolated from the pathways taken during the past
years?
5. How are these strategies currently being used in the context of School B and what is
the impact of these strategies?
1
Research methodology
The key activity in producing this dissertation will revolve around reflection on events, an
examination of the contexts and elements making change possible within those contexts, and
a précis of strategies undertaken, whether through design or accident.
Through Hudson’s ‘personal and professional development planning process’ (PPDP), I will
highlight several cycles of this process, as outlined in his short paper:
‘Accordingly in order to undertake action research, one aims to develop a plan of
action, act to implement the plan, observe the effects of action in the context in which
it occurs, and reflect on these effects as a basis for further planning, subsequent action
and so on, through a succession of cycles.’ (2003, 1)
The reflections will be threaded throughout each discussion and summarised at the end. What
emerges is a picture of my career that is strewn with such events. What is challenging is to
focus on those events that had the greatest impact on my career to date and how that impact
has been spread to my colleagues and students at the time.
I have, since the beginning of my time on the MSc course, kept every key draft of work and
published via my website, www.ic-t.net, my portfolio up to and including my Project Studies
unit work. Additionally, other work outside of school and the MSc has been well documented,
with my overall professional portfolio dating back to the beginning of my teaching career in
1999. This has aided the development of this dissertation immensely and, at the same time,
kept me working within the spirit of the PPDP process. The fact that I am reflecting so closely
with the MSc in mind is indicative of the depth to which my notes extend.
To reinforce this reflection will be a small-scale action research project in the current context
of the school where I am currently employed. Being on the senior leadership team, I will
describe my work in a collegiate way in order to effect permanent change in a variety of areas.
Sensitivity to the varied needs of colleagues at all levels in the school and the longer term
impact on new developments described will be highlighted.
2
Chronology of developments
The best introduction to my experiences to date is summarised in Appendix A (see figure
below). This shows clearly the parallel developments at various levels which have affected
the potential to carry out the work involved.
Figure A: Thumbnail of Chronology of developments, found in Appendix A
Especially relevant is the way in which university and school developments coincided with
my ability to engage with the process of change. For example, during 2000 – 2001, I took my
first unit (OFLE) on the MSc course, applied some of the core principles I was learning to
teaching my level 2 (GNVQ ICT, year 1) students, began some project work based around
both the MSc course and the Technology College targets, and assisted our school’s partner
primary teachers through NOF (New Opportunities Funded) ICT training. Additionally, one
benefit of the ISDN initiative for the school was the ability to run video-conferencing. My
thoughts on this were formed during studies, again through the OFLE unit.
3
A personal Protean career

The dissertation begins with a discussion on my approach in developing a Protean career, not
relying on any one employer, organisation, or part to the MSc course for future prospects to
apply skills and knowledge to new contexts. The contexts experienced to date will be outlined
to aid the understanding of how the developments described fit within the organisations.
Additionally, how my career developed with each organisation will give some insight that
there have been occasions when my placement was concurrent with some need on the part of
the organisation. This served both my development professionally and the organisation’s
ability to progress.
Contextual impact and developments
Figure B: Levels of impact and development, stemming from my work

The above figure represents the way in which developments are focussed within the context
of my schools. It is intended to show that any one development can affect, and therefore have
potential to develop, an individual group. Alternatively, and more likely, most have impacted
4
on several levels, not necessarily all levels for each project, either simultaneously or as the
project progresses with time.
The approach to this dissertation is to demonstrate how several developments as contexts

allowed for me to impact at the levels above:
• Technology College Status bid and execution
• Delivery on two schools’ ability to function better administratively
• Development of my educational practice as an ICT teacher
• Requirements on me as assistant headteacher in charge of e-learning
The framework on which the above is to be built revolves around four strands in each case:
• Experiences which had an impact on my ability to function in context
• Knowledge and/or skills developed through the course
• Ways of working, developed both within the MSc and via work in schools
• Application of work components as an MSc student to the role of teacher
Reflections and Summary

Common strands will be explored, with a highlight given to those that the reader might wish
to consider for personal or professional career growth.
Appendices
These include user guides for the systems described in the text, the latter guides being based
upon both experience and less organic, best practice. Also included are a presentation
delivered during the VLE training session described in chapter 7, a training feedback form for
staff completion and consent form used to obtain permission to use data and anonymised
quotes within the context of this dissertation.
5
Chapter 2 – Literature Review
Overview
The development of a teaching career has developed into primarily two paths, pay rises
coupled with development as advanced teacher status and management of curriculum and/or
pastoral parts to the school. According to the Training and Development Agency for Schools:
“• Experienced teachers can apply for assessment against national standards and move
on to the upper pay scale.
• You can also move into management whilst staying close to teaching and to your
subject.
• You may become a head of department or a subject key stage coordinator or head of
year.
• For those that want to concentrate on classroom teaching, an advanced skills teacher
(AST).
• Headteachers shape the vision, lead and manage the school community.”1
What is left for teachers who wish to develop their professional practice and couple it with
personal interests, without taking responsibility for more than their teaching groups?
An emerging theory of professional development surmises that the individual and not the
organisation is responsible for this undertaking and that the organisation is responsible for
supporting this approach. The ‘Protean contract’ places a greater emphasis on inward
reflection, psychological success as the baseline by which to judge a career:
“The Protean career is a process which the person, not the organization [sic], is
managing. It consists of all of the person’s varied experiences in education, training,
work in several organizations, changes in occupational field, etc. The Protean person’s
own personal career choices and search for self-fulfilment are the unifying or
integrative elements in his or her life.”
(Hall and Moss, 1998, 157)
The purpose of this literature review is to examine the varied categories of literature that
support this approach to developing the individual. The synthesis of the following strands will
then be used to underpin my approach to date:
• The Protean contract
• Cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics, in relation to team working
• Learning culture, in relation to education
• Learning technologies and their implementation
1
http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/r/routes%20into%20teaching%20presentation%20%20london.pdf
(accessed June 2006)
6
These categories can, at first, appear disparate. However, examination at a closer level will
help to indicate the joins and how action research has a direct impact on both the organisation
and the individuals using it as a tool for change.
7
The Protean contract

There is relatively little written about career development in teaching with this perspective.
One proposition might be that education is about the wider good done to learners and thus
society. Armstrong highlights the reasons why this notion is altruistic.
‘As Peter Drucker wisely said many years ago (1955): ‘Development is always self-
development. Nothing could be more absurd than for the enterprise to assume
responsibility for the development of a man [sic]. The responsibility rests with the
individual, his abilities, his [sic] efforts’. (2003, 590)
This gives an indication that those in education should seek ways in which to develop their
practice outside of the schools in which they work.
US librarians, a public services organisation similar to education, has been analysed for the
benefits of a similar approach, though there remains some hesitance over relinquishing
intervention by the library organisation in career development.
‘Continuing education attempts to address the needs of librarians as they learn new
skills, but placed in the larger context of our profession, we need to also address the
needs of the organization.’ (Peterson, 2004, 1)
This demonstrates a lesson that whilst the organisation should not assume responsibility, it is
necessary for the organisation to align the professional development opportunities with the
organisational objectives. Peterson emphasises this point by simplifying the ambition of
training programmes being to ‘recruit “architectural ally (ies) in the remodelling [sic] of a
learning organization” (Rutherford, 1999)’ (2004, 1). In addition to this being an over-
simplification of the benefits to a Protean contract, it relies on a very high level of recruitment
skills to probe for employees who are moulded to the organisation. Whilst this isn’t too much
to ask, it could ultimately run counter to the Protean contract’s ambition of ‘self-fulfilment’
when the model of the organisation no longer matches the development requirements of the
individual.
A more realistic model offered for public service in the context of personal development is
outlined by the US Agency for International Development:
‘No one individual, organization, or discipline holds a monopoly on the truth.
Collaboration is necessary, yet carries the risk of homogenizing our differences in
favor [sic] of expediency, suppressing creativity and learning.’ (2002)
8
This view is supported by the Agency’s perspective on a ‘leader’ being anyone in a public
service organisation and the focus for development prior to meeting organisational ambitions
(see figure below).
Figure C: Population Leadership Program (PLP) Framework
The strength in this viewpoint is that it is through the network of individuals (‘relationships’
above) within the organisation that performance and, subsequently, sustainable programmes
arise. (US Agency for International Development, 2002) Another strength in this viewpoint
lies in that, although the model was developed within the context of public health with a very
wide definition, the PLP encourages variation in the experience of its participants: ‘we
achieve our goals for healthy communities by working in diverse groups’ (US Agency for
International Development, 2002). This allows for the changes in occupation outlined in Hall
and Moss (1998, 157) above.
Armstrong developed a useful chart (below, 2003, 595) for employers to focus their energies in
a useful way to assist career management. Although not set in the context of a Protean career,
9
I’ve highlighted in red stages that fall within Hall and Moss’ (1995, 165) ‘Ten Steps to
Promoting Success Protean Careers’.
Figure D: Armstrong’s ‘process of career management’, adapted
In summary, to develop a Protean career-minded individual, there is the need to focus on the
needs of the individual employed, whilst balancing how satisfying these needs can mutually
benefit the organisational objectives.
10
Cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics, in relation to team working

Moving outward from analysis of individual needs, a discussion is required on how the
relationships between individuals can develop into teams. Much literature is available about
how to develop teams2 and to maintain momentum in team-based endeavours. This isn’t going
to revise such material. More important in this discussion is the more recent gloss placed upon
how individuals should orientate themselves toward one another in order to cleanly integrate
their expertise with that of others, particularly with a discussion on an emerging concept,
‘cultural intelligence’.
Cultural intelligence concentrates on the individual’s ability to take into account the culture, in
the widest possible definition of the word, and background of associates. Putting this into
context with organisations, Triandis defines it thus:
‘Many organizations of the 21st century are multicultural….This reality results in
numerous dyadic relationships where the cultures of the two members differ….Cultural
intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) is required for the two members of the dyad to
develop a good working relationship.’ (2006, 20)
How does this relate to the current discussion? When a number of individuals, all with their
developed set of skills and contexts on their Protean career path, come together to tackle a
project, they should have ‘a heightened awareness of and enhanced attention to current
experience or present reality’ (Thomas, 2006, 84), particularly with reference to the team in
which they are working. Thomas is particularly concerned that part of the individual’s
development is that ability to function in a new context: ‘A key component that distinguishes
CQ from other related ideas is the ability to generate appropriate behavior [sic] in a new
cultural setting; that is, based on knowledge and mindfulness3...’ (2006, 87) He places CQ at
the intersection of knowledge, behaviour and mindfulness (2006, 84):
2
A good starting point can be found on the Accel-Team website, http://www.accel-team.com
3
Thomas defines ‘Mindfulness as a metacognitive strategy focuses attention on the knowledge of culture and the
processes of cultural influence as well as on an individual's motives, goals, emotions, and external stimuli. By so
doing it controls cognitive processing and response by (a) bringing to mind knowledge relevant to the focus of
attention, (b) choosing not to respond automatically, (c) inhibiting undesirable responses, and (d) editing
responses to be consistent with motives and goals...’ (2006, 86)
11
Figure E: Thomas’ Components of Cultural Intelligence
More helpful is the outline of virtuous cycle of development by the individual of CQ. The
diagram below demonstrates that through approaching relationships in a culturally intelligent
way, the individual benefits and is better equipped to deal with relationship-building in future
(Thomas, 2006, 89):
Figure F: Thomas’ Development of Cultural Intelligence
This approach reinforces one of Hall and Moss’ suggestions for Protean career development:
‘Promote Learning Through Relationships and Work…most real training comes from peer-
assisted, self-directed learning through such vehicles as project teams, …personal networks,
support groups…’ (1995, 168)
12
Two areas for consideration by a person with CQ arise in Triandis:

‘A culturally intelligent person suspends judgment until information becomes available
beyond the ethnicity of the other person because personality attributes such as
idiocentrism - allocentrism need to be considered.’ (2006, 21)
More particularly of relevance is whether there is a match between the associate and the
organisational objectives, whether the organisation is intrinsically idiocentric or allocentric.
The individual must be aware whether there is a match and, if there is a conflict between the
associate’s and the organisation position, how to ensure that this doesn’t affect the work
undertaken. Punctuating this point, Triandis states that ‘Individuals who are allocentric in
individualist organizations or idiocentric in collectivist organizations are countercultural.’
(2006, 26)
The above discussion again focuses on the individual’s ability to function within a team. From
the organisational perspective, once the team is established, Wageman and Gordon outline the
need for some understanding of how a task might be orchestrated:
‘Task interdependence in teams is the degree to which a piece of work requires
multiple individuals to exchange help and resources interactively to complete the
work.’ (2006, 687)
They go on to outline four factors that lead to orchestration for task interdependence being
successful:
• how the task is defined to a group
• the rules that managers establish about process (e.g. working alone or not)
• physical technology of the task
• allocation of resources (skills, information, and materials) (2006, adapted 688)
This is again consistent with the proposal for promoting the Protean career: ‘Provide Career-
Enhancing Work and Relational Interventions…managers and career practitioners must be
able to influence…how job and other work assignments…are made.’ (Hall and Moss, 1995,
168).
Most importantly, there is a benefit to the task and thus the organisation in ownership of the
work undertaken:
'Members of highly task-interdependent groups...exhibit high-quality interpersonal
relations, engage in extensive learning from each other, and develop a sense of
collective responsibility for performance outcomes.' (Wageman and Gordon, 2006,
689)
13
This could lead to more enterprising practice, whereby teams adopt a no-blame ethos and are
better able to identify with the success generated both through their individual efforts and
through that generated by the team more widely.
14
Learning culture, in relation to education

In education, there are two types of learning that need consideration. On the one hand, there is
the learning on the part of students, on the other the learning by the organisation (staff and
management), whatever the stage of learning (i.e. primary, secondary, tertiary and higher
education) in which it is involved, in order to deliver its potential for its learners. The latter
often deals with the management of change and how it can become the ‘learning organization’,
outlined by Peter Senge as meaning one ‘that is continually expanding its capacity to create its
future’ (1990, 14).
How students learn is well documented with a wide variety of learning theories, e.g. neuro-
linguistic programming (nlp4) and its impact on learning, social constructivism5, and Bloom’s
taxonomy6. There is no shortage of information on how these apply to today’s life-long
learning culture. The learning theory I wish to address applies particularly to how educators
can be helped to adopt new skills and knowledge, particularly in light of the need to take on
new technologies for the benefit of their students.
Joining skills and knowledge is the approach which teachers must adopt in order to
appropriately address learning needs, as discussed in Hudson, et al. (2000, 3). Primarily it is to
outline the application of the technology to the learning requirements, not blindly putting
technology where the learner or the learning culture is not in a position to receive it. A strength
to the MSc as outlined in ELMAC is the balance of the three elements, particularly the views
that the technology undertaken on this course was not a ‘quick fix’ (Hudson et al, 2000, 10)
and that technologically rich learning ‘requires an attitude that is tolerant and open to the need
for “repairs” to communication as one would expect in more traditional forms of
communication.’ (Hudson et al., 2000, 11) This highlights the need to carefully align
technology into educational values held and with learners in a position to fully exploit the
advantages. This has as much to do with the learning culture as with the strategies advised for
undertaking this integration.
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming
5
http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/constructivism.htm
6
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom's_Taxonomy
15
Figure G: Triangulation of Learner, Culture and Technology in delivering MSc ELMAC
For the individual teacher or student, Armstrong restated a definition for ‘action learning’: ‘…
Revans produced the following formula to describe his concept: L (learning) = P (programmed
learning) + Q (questioning, insight).’ (2003, 561) Teaching staff are in a good position to
approach delivery of their learning objectives, with their new learning often tinged with what
can be perceived by some as cynicism, but when examined is their questioning of anything
new.
More difficult to shift is the ‘programmed learning’ mentioned above. Again, Armstrong on
Revans: ‘Learning is deepest when it involved the whole person – mind, values, body,
emotions [sic].’ (2003, 561) This applies equally to teachers, being a worthwhile endeavour for
effective staff development and to students, if effective learning of any material is the
ambition. Once deemed valuable by the teaching staff, new ways of learning then need to be
learned by the students, often at the instigation of the teacher. This will only be successful if
the teacher is truly committed.
There are two ways in which such change can be instigated for the benefit of the learners; one
is driven by the organisation, the other by the teaching staff. In either case, once an innovation
or renovation (of current practice) is reviewed, lessons need to be learned as to the efficacy of
the change. Hence, the organisation goes from one that survives the day-to-day running of
itself to one that is empowered to ‘create its future’ as mentioned earlier.
A good starting point to how this can occur for education is to look at the ‘learning school’.
Aspinwall argues the ‘important reasons for (teams of teachers) coming together for support
and learning’ (1998, 45). Although this doesn’t review the notion of the idiocentric
environment as described by Triandis above, the trust engendered in such teams, with
groupings often driven by the teachers themselves, allows for positive working practices. The
16
following benefit is again an idiocentric outcome, Aspinwall not yet outlining the benefits for
the organisation: ‘The purpose is to help this individual (teacher) to take action in the light
of…new insight…to change…(a) situation.’(1998, 47) Described as ‘hot spots’ of learning,
Aspinwall goes onto state that they ‘need to be aware of and linked to each other’ to allow
organisational learning. (1998, 48)
Aspinwall defines five organisational learning styles:

• ‘Habits – the standard operating procedures, rules, ways of working, methods of
teaching…(that) continue regardless of changes of staff…
• Memory – the stored experience of an organisation…
• Imitation / Modelling – using other schools as a benchmark and taking best practice
and learning from elsewhere…
• Experiment – learning through innovation and trial and error…
• Critical awareness / Enquiry – perhaps the most-wide ranging…requires…(a)
questioning attitude to the organisation itself…’ (1998, 63 – 67)
There is no one style in the learning school and a style might be the result from or a driver for
a particular group of staff carrying out a task. Also, each must be considered on its strengths
and downsides, with ultimate decisions being taken on next steps, once the school is mindful
of its current learning style bias. Again taking into account the individual’s development of
CQ, individual and collective organisational learning styles need to be accepted and
remembered by all parties, once known, to put into practice the best actions subsequent to team
working.
Peter Senge takes this one step further and describes within the team context the need for the
‘willingness to consider each other as colleagues…(which) acknowledges mutual risk and
establishes the sense of safety in facing the risk’. (1990, 245) This establishes an important
ground rule before team working. In the individualist environment of a school, this is
important. Any team working activity that prima facie takes the teacher from the core activity
until the new activity establishes different new working practice perceived as appropriate
should be shared risk. However, in establishing a collegiate approach, Senge argues that the
dialogue and expectations need to be set out in advance by the facilitator. (1990, 246) This
dialogue in turn aids the working practice of the team.
Senge develops this thinking, applying the need for a coherent ‘team’ language to the
management team of an organisation.
17
‘Perhaps the single greatest liability of management teams is that they confront…
complex, dynamic realities with a language designed for simple, static problems.’
(1990, 266)
The management team sets the agenda for the organisation through its collective vision. It can
be surmised that if their language for success in achieving their vision is appropriate that the
operational teams’, however comprised, chances for success are enhanced. Senge capitalises
the discussion: ‘The conversation becomes about “the structure,” the systemic forces at play,
not about personalities and leadership styles.’ (1990, 268) Aspinwall underlines the importance
for such objectivity when discussing practical barriers to change. ‘Healthy questioning is
essential and lack of resistance can lead to ill-thought-out developments being pushed
through.’ (1998, 110)
In summary, the learning organisation in the educational sector should be aware of the learning
style of the individual, team comprised of individuals and the organisation prior to embarking
on change. Additionally, the management team of the organisation should at least co-ordinate
groups initiating change according to the organisational vision, if the best effect is desired,
giving careful thought to the language for success. This ensures objectivity, a positive dialogue
and avoidance of a blame culture creeping in where risks are concerned.
18
Learning technologies and their implementation

Another key responsibility for the management team is how to view future planning, in line
with the organisational objectives. Given the pace of technological developments, what are the
key drivers for new technology and how is it best to implement these within a chosen
timescale? Key considerations include radical versus incremental change, the ‘soft
technology7’ (Sloman, 2001, 111) required for success, and the ‘causal ambiguity8’ (Ambrosini
and Bowman, 2005, 493) that might arise in the process of change. In the body of the
dissertation, the discussion will draw on these issues and cover specific innovations, such as
virtual learning environments (VLEs).
To begin, a table from Child (2005, 288), outlines examples of radical and incremental change
against planned and emergent change. This is, perhaps, the best explanation for his notion of
categories for change by all or part of the organisation:
Planned Emergent
Business process Organic development
Whole
reengineering (e.g. start-up company)
organization
Radical
Merger of departments Changes to selection of
Part
new members made by
organization
teams
Annual targeted Organizational learning Whole
improvements organization
Incremental Changes agreed in staff Continuous
Part
performance plans improvement through
organization
project teams
Figure H: Child’s grid of Planned vs Emergent developments in organisations
Child outlines the disadvantage to planned changes, as often occurs when an organisation
intends to implement new technologies:
‘A planned organizational change almost always takes longer to accomplish than is first
envisaged. The process has to run through a number of phases successfully…(1)
building a team to lead the change, (2) permitting resistance to surface, (3) securing
identification with the objectives of the change, and (4) evaluating the change and
building a learning capability for the future.’ (2005, 302-3)
This time seems to be a common factor for creation of VLE content:
7
‘Soft technology will hereafter refer to the activities that must be taken at all levels in an organisation to embed
that hard technology effectively.’ (Sloman, 2001, 111)
8
‘…causal ambiguity refers in part to how organizations generate and nurture, via their resources, sustainable
competitive advantage’ (Ambrosini and Bowman, 2005, 493)
19
‘In a large study we finished in early 2003, we asked more than 9,000 e-learning
professionals what their single biggest challenge was. Their single most common
answer is shown below.
“It takes too long to build courses…time is the critical missing ingredient.”’
(Bersin, 2004, 179)
As with any change, unless the resources are not put into place, such as time, it is less likely to
occur with success. This is where the consideration lies for whether the whole or only part of
the organisation is going to undertake the change. If only part of the organisation is
undertaking change, the total cost of the time, e.g. with the VLE above, is reduced. It is
unfortunate, however, that much technological change enforces the need to adopt an emergent
change perspective given the pace of change. This makes it more difficult to constantly pilot
changes on a smaller scale before rolling to the whole organisation.
With this question of how to approach technological intervention in education, Fahy describes
a key driver from ‘Picard (1999)…(who) sees the key contribution of media as their ability to
promote relationship building, and not merely information exchange, in work or learning.”
(2005, 8) This assists learners to build on their previous learning and refers one back to the
mission of being a facilitator for learning, rather than one that delivers his / her knowledge as
the knowledge to be learned. More importantly, there are relationships to be built between the
learners and the facilitators whilst making learning connections on a course using ICT to
facilitate delivery:
‘The active participation in discussions was not an option but a necessary requirement
with comments being expected within fixed timescales and core readings, project
plans of peers etc. As a result the level of communication on the course was very
high…’ (Hudson, et al., 2000, 6)
Fahy goes on to outline key purposes in the use of technology ‘for a specific pedagogical
purpose…
• Instruction…
• Reinforcement, corrective feedback, and cues and explanations...
• Participation, engagement, time-on-task...
• Assessing and respecting diverse learning styles, preferences…’
(Fahy, 2005, 11)
This is a very helpful way in which to summarise the goals for technology in the educational
environment, especially when management teams are looking to use an alternative delivery
mode. It also gives an agenda for discussion on how educational establishments can set out
20
their ‘competitive advantage’ (Ambrosini and Bowman, 2005, 493), ensuring that a clear link
is made between the feature offered by technology and the success or otherwise delivered by
that feature.
For example, ‘Instruction…’ above covers a range of tasks from offering resources for
reading, review or study to a set of assessments that give the learner an opportunity to feed
back what they have learned. Many VLEs offer teaching staff the opportunity to upload
teaching materials and resources and the ability to review assessment pieces delivered back to
the VLE by the learner. Further to this, feedback can be set against that assessment piece
response. The management team can draw a link between the VLE’s ability to carry out these
functions and make key decisions on how effectively this can be done by their staff and
students, before making a purchase and deployment decision for a particular VLE.
Without these types of links in the purchase of technologies, causal ambiguity (a counter-
productive feature for organisational learning) can overtake an organisation. This is especially
harmful, given the high costs associated with inefficient deployment of technology.
There are two parts to the high costs involved to implement the actual pieces of technology.
The first involves the purchase and implementation of the hardware and software. The second
is the ‘soft technology’, which primarily involves training both staff and students to highlight
the ‘strong link between the pedagogy and the possibilities of the technology itself.’ (Weller,
2002, 78) Indeed, Sloman makes a series of propositions for e-learning to become most
effective:
‘Proposition 13: E-learning will be most effective as part of a systematic approach
involving classroom and experiential learning with appropriate support.’
(Sloman, 2001, 86)
Sloman goes on to propose a generic model, which could be adapted to a variety of non-
technological proposal, and delivers a clear flowchart for action once the hardware and
software are implemented:
21
Figure I: Sloman’s model for stages in implementing e-learning
This gives a clear set of questions as prompts for management teams on their educational
organisation’s most important aspect, its staff development tying with student learning.
Although the term ‘customer’ is becoming outdated when referring to a student, the focus is
right with regard to all e-learning developments revolving around the people who give
education a purpose.
22
Conclusion
Above, I’ve outlined many areas that have influenced my thoughts on the implementation of
e-learning projects, which may at first appear disjointed. However, there are two threads that
run throughout two halves of the discussion.
The first relates to how individuals and teams might equip themselves in order to assist an
organisation to facilitate new learning strategies, specifically relating to the Protean contract
for individuals. When involving oneself, being assigned to a team, this ‘contract’ remains
valid but a further attribute should be considered, that of CQ through mindful reflection of
one’s own perceptions. Given that learning organisations are individualistic in nature, this
focus on the individual staff member is entirely appropriate, even though teamwork is a
necessity at times.
For management teams, the focus is on value for money deployment of new learning
strategies. There may be ‘common sense’ issues for these teams, such as giving time to a
project. However, it is not always practical to do what is sensible. This gives rise to the
second thread, particularly related to how the team can maintain a ‘learning organisation’
function. A most helpful summary to facilitate this is as follows and is based around
Ambrosini and Bowman’s work. For all purchasing and deployment decisions, management
teams might draft a ‘cause map…(a) graphic representation that consists of nodes, and arrows
that link the nodes (Huff, 1990; Weick and Bougon, 1986)…’ (2005, 497) of their
requirements for new technology and how these might be met by what is available. Ambrosini
and Bowman go on to break down a causal map into its essential elements:
‘We asked each manager to individually code the map generated using the following
categories:
A. The factors that are well known to you.
B. The factors you did not know about.
C. The factors you knew about but you did not realize mattered for performance.
D. The factors that you knew about but that are left alone because they are not
well understood.
E. Others. Please specify.’ (2005, 498)
Not only would such an approach begin a useful basis on which to take such important
decisions, given the costs of getting a strategy wrong. Later in the implementation process, it
would be possible to assess the success of any such project, even looking at the value for
money in an objective fashion.
23
Chapter 3 – A Personal Protean Career
Introduction
On qualification to teach Business Studies and ICT, the concentration was entirely on getting a
job to teach. The key factor to beginning my own Protean career was responding to an
advertisement for a part-time ICT teacher post at School A. It took three interview days, with
the ultimate day seeing a meeting with the chair of governors. A primary question during the
interview centred on why, with the qualifications I had and the ICT skills I’d developed, I
wished to take a part-time teaching post. Given the early stages of development for the
proliferation of ICT equipment and its usage at the College, there was a great deal to discuss
about the opportunities, both for the students and staff and for myself.
The school was about to commence writing a bid to become a Specialist School in
Technology (TC status), which placed ICT at the centre of the bid. This drew on my previous
business experience, as sponsorship needed to be raised9. Also taking up the time in which I
wasn’t teaching was assisting the process in writing the bid, helping to facilitate the school
departments’ contributions and targets. Taken so much into the centre of a strategic
development meant that I worked closely with the principal (equivalent to the position of
headteacher), vice principal (equivalent to the position of deputy headteacher), and chair of
governors. As a newly-qualified teacher, I was in a position to face challenges typically given
to those with many years’ experience in education – to date in September 1999, I had none.
Year 1
A feature of the Protean career indicates that the employee takes decisions as to how the
career will develop, after identification of the skills base that is needed. It was beyond doubt
as to whether the opportunities arising offered a chance to develop a variety of skills.
However, there was initially little intent on my part to do this, aside from wishing to immerse
myself in the activities required for a successful bid. At times during my first year in teaching,
I was undertaking tasks, such as approaching private companies for sponsorship, usually
reserved for senior management teams. In addition to this, I quickly built up a portfolio of
literature advertising the bid, the school and how a relationship might be established between
the school and the business.
9
For the bid, £50000 needed to be raised from public and private sponsorship in order to obtain funding of
£100000 from the DfEE (Department for Education and Employment), now the DfES (Department for Education
and Skills).
24
Exciting though these tasks were, however, the more important were the decisions in targets
for the ICT department, ICT across the school and the activities that would be judged when
the success of the bid was reviewed by the DfEE during the four year cycle of funding. There
were key elements to taking both students forward and the use of ICT generally. These
included:
• a new vocational course in the use of ICT
• creation of a new school website
• creation and implementation of a virtual learning environment
• PCs connected by a school
• the use of video-conferencing
There was much to be done, with myself being the ICT person in the school, which included
the head of ICT, who was also head of design technology and more an enthusiastic amateur
than expert. Although I was an NQT, I was already driving policy at a strategic level. The
trust awarded to me was entirely consistent with my reasoning for going into education, i.e. to
help others understand better the use of ICT, and the ‘self-fulfilment’ mentioned by Hall and
Moss as an indicator for the Protean contract. (1998, 157) The school was awarded TC status
and now had a mandate to develop itself, its staff, and most importantly its students.
Outside of the school environment, I was equally busy, expanding my portfolio within the
university sector. Prior to my experience as a student on this course, I was retained by
Sheffield Hallam University to assist the key person in two areas: the Euroland CD-ROM
project and the Triple M10 project. These tasks led me to develop both the teaching skills of
reviewing tasks (via Euroland) for their educational values and to interact with the people
with a vested interest in getting the MSc into an acceptable framework and format.
Year 2
Key moments arose out of my success at meeting targets, especially with my first area of
formally paid responsibility in my second year of teaching. This was responsibility for
vocational education at the school. Whilst six years in industry were helpful in my
understanding on a practical level, it was difficult to establish quickly the educational links
10
http://www.pa-linz.ac.at/international/Triple-M/default.htm
25
with my business experience. It was more straightforward in applying business acumen to

discussions with managing directors in the search for sponsorship.
In addition to the attraction to the school of money for the bid, my classes were benefiting
from my business experience, particularly the Key Skills in ICT and GNVQ in ICT, both at
level two. Here, given that I was living the use of ICT for the bid, I was able to apply the
considerations on a professional level and bring my students beyond the basic curriculum,
using real applications of IT, experimenting on a whole school level at Key Stage 4. The
allowance by the headteacher to experiment sits well with Aspinwall’s learning style of the
same name11.
Building on my experiences was the ability to undertake the MSc, using the school as a
context. Often, what occurs is that a school requires a certain task or project undertaken which
is then staffed appropriately. This was reversed, with my studies driving new projects being
applied to the bid targets. The pattern was often one of: MSc studies  MSc project 
partial/full implementation  review for impact in school  write up MSc paper. This
synthesis was a condensed version of Hall and Moss’ psychological success: my ‘…varied
experiences in education, training, work in several organizations…’ (1998, 157)
One valuable aspect of the relationship between myself and the university was the ability to
access learning opportunities for the school’s students outside usual networks, e.g. the
Specialist Schools Trust12. This resulted in sewing the seeds for my first project for the MSc,
the use of video-conferencing as an open-learning tool. This expertise eased the purchase and
use of equipment within the school and the wider community, furthering my contact with
other educationalists, particularly primary headteachers. Because of this contact with a
variety of people, my Protean career, considering my CQ development, was furthered beyond
the business context. The greater technical developments arose during the following year.
11
As it happened, the experimentation led to excellent results from both new courses.
12
Previously known as the Technology College Trust, this organisation sponsored the school to £25000, or half
of its sponsorship requirement, validated the school’s claim for consideration as a candidate to become a
specialist school, and provided support, such as sending a senior person when we interviewed a network
manager, when we became a Technology College. (http://www.specialistschoolstrust.org.uk)
26
Year 3
Rewards at this early stage in my career came in the form of promotion to head of ICT at the
school. But there was much work remaining to be done. Particularly of importance was the
transition of the school website to a more informative, up-to-date forum and the development
of a virtual learning environment.13 This again allowed my skills to be directly correlated from
my studies toward the Digital Media Applications unit (DMA) for the benefit of the students
and school. Having developed the skills in programming for a context in database-driven
websites, I later applied this to the needs generated by the bid, undertaking much of the
development outside of school hours. This commitment meant that my teaching practice was
unaffected by these wider school advancements.
Of concern was that the local education authority (LEA) was not in a position to support the
application. As a result, I required the fortitude to drive ahead in spite of the LEA stating
longer term intentions to develop similar technologies. What I didn’t want to do was to spend
a great deal of time and effort programming, if the LEA was either going to develop the VLE
or data-driven or host such programs in the near future. It was important that, where possible,
I worked in harmony with the LEA, as a key source of advice and assistance to the school. I
acknowledged my prejudice regarding the LEA’s ability to accommodate progress using ICT
in the near future, but ultimately made the decision to move beyond their scope. Doing
otherwise carried ‘the risk of homogenizing our differences in favor [sic] of expediency,
suppressing (my) creativity and (my) learning’.(US Agency for International Development,
2002) Any concerns I had about interference once I began programming were allayed, as
there were no individuals at the LEA level who actually understood the developments.
Another great success factor was the way in which I applied many of the skills directly to the
classroom experience for my GNVQ students. Project planning, ICT product reviews, and
even directly from the DMA website creation all played their part in 17 of 18 students in the
first cohort of the qualification attaining an A*-C GCSE equivalent. Again this is consistent
with the PLP Leadership framework from the US Agency for International Development,
whereby my improvement led to enabling others. (2002)
Year 4
13
See my paper for the Project Studies unit at http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc for details.
27
The progress above meant that my, student, and school success were becoming inextricably
linked. In order to build on the latter, I needed to work further on how I would fully integrate
developments appropriate to the school. This came down to working closely with colleagues
in order to share objectives, the new technology and the success factors should they wish to
undertake change. I was encouraged to do just this by several tiers within the school from
administrative staff to teaching staff to the senior management team to governors. Not only
was this encouragement motivational, it allowed me to work in ‘diverse groups’ to ‘achieve
our goals for healthy communities’ (US Agency for International Development, 2002) within
and across those groups.
I recognised that whilst I had the necessary technological capabilities, these would mean little
without spreading the practices beyond my classroom. Both the Communications,
Consultancy and Change (CCC) and Project Studies (PS) units underpinned these ‘soft
technology’ (Weller, 2002, 78) considerations. Personally, I concentrated on honing the skills
to deliver such training and give support.
Two products for the build-up to and from the implementation of the website and intranet
were appendices B (Intranet User Guide) and C (the same for Admin Users). These often
became discussion documents during training sessions, especially the dialogue at the
beginning of appendix B, where I set the agenda for why the school facilitated the
development:
‘I interpreted the VLC14 as requiring two key facilities:
1. Website and resource links for all subject areas to be built up
over time by departments
2. The ability for staff to post work virtually, to be completed by
the student online, to be marked online, and the marking to be reviewed
by the students online. This essentially means no paper and no “my
disk ate it” or “my print cartridge ran out”.’ (appendix B, 2)
This very useful documentation meant that I could concentrate on the more ‘global’ issues,
rather than having to repeat the detailed parts to the system. I could show staff once or twice
how to do so and then build in examples of when they might need to use that aspect of the
system. This approach certainly addressed Peterson’s desire that training looked to ‘address
the needs of librarians15 as they learn new skills… (and) in the larger context…the needs of
the organization’. (2004, 1)
14
V(irtual) L(earning) C(entre) – this was a description for learning via school facilities 24/7 given in the bid.
15
This is as per the discussion carried out in Peterson, 2004. In this case I mean the staff at School A.
28
Years 5 and 6
This period was marked by the greatest change in career, as I was looking to expand my
portfolio of schools and to heighten my position in order to have a more immediate impact on
decision making. Although I had already been involved on an informal, junior basis in high-
level decisions, the experiences to date equipped me to build on technological innovation and
renovation in a directly responsible way. Until now, many of the projects were not directly
tied to my formal job description. This, of course, had little impact on the effectiveness or my
motivation to carry them out. It also highlights how traditional, formal career development is
very different from a Protean career. I was carrying out projects for my development and for
the betterment of the school.
Although the latter was still true in taking promotion to assistant headship, formalisation of
my position to effect change was a welcome development. Simultaneous with this sentiment
was the ability to take the facilitation of ICT project work through teaching to A-level (level
3), GNVQ having been a level 2 course. Much was put into my path to prevent the
enthusiasm being carried across immediately, ranging from the passing away of the head of
ICT to disastrous results in all the ICT courses taught prior to my arrival.
The first event was the prime mover – I gained the opportunity to hone my head of
department skills and thus people management. This essentially put any development work on
hold, aside from consolidating where the department and the school were at for equipment
and software and thus the delivery of ICT. This was my time to develop the CQ elements
further, in a more formal setting.
This concentration allowed me to lay the foundations for establishing what the cultures and
sub-cultures were within my new school. Overall the school of nearly 2000 (the previous one
was a mere 530), faced me with a multitude of cultures. I learned about how to diversify
myself into the ‘numerous dyadic relationships’ (Triandis, 2006, 20), which takes a great deal
of time, especially with the time that it takes to build trust in an individualistic organisation,
particularly with the teaching staff.
29
This done, I went on to begin development of the facilities I took for granted after the projects
at the previous school, a data-driven website, intranet and the purchase of an advanced virtual
learning environment. Through development of positive working relations with my new board
of governors, I released funding of over six times any previous year for this period. The key
relationship in the deployment of equipment was that with the network manager. Prior to my
arrival, the headteacher and the governors were rarely convinced of the curriculum needs that
were driving the purchase of equipment. My intervention and the translation into curriculum
terms of equipment purchases brought the school into the modern age for a school of its size.
Although the network manager and I established a positive working relationship, an

uncontrollable element to my strategic intervention was the LEA. A prime mover behind the
staff intranet project for the benefit of staff was this, in that the school had previously had its
network split into two, administrative and curriculum. This meant that there was no way of
sharing document to run the administrative aspects for teachers, admin staff and managers.
Whilst this is discussed in further detail in chapter 5, for the Protean career it meant creation
of a website-based arena in which to share communications, and thus work with a variety of
staff in order to assist their work. I quickly established in year 5 the ‘personal networks’ (Hall
and Moss, 1995, 168) that currently underpin my work.
The final consideration for this period was that, through my teaching I was able to experiment
with my teaching groups, particularly A-level, in order to entrench project-based ways of
working. If one works from the premise that material is much easier to learn through teaching,
I had a deep motivation for filtering down and passing on my experiences to my students,
many of the A-level students whom had struggled with inadequate and inappropriate delivery
of ICT throughout their time at School B. My personal learning about the new teaching
syllabi across the range of ICT studies was highly motivational, involving ‘mind, values,
body, emotions… (Armstrong, 2003, 561) I was made to wait until the end of year 6 for
success, when my A-level teaching group amassed six A-C grades of seven for their project
work and 13 of 16 GCSE students gained the full course GCSE at A*-C grade. These were
the rewards for patience and understanding of where the ICT department was at my arrival,
what the issues were that impacted negatively on the grades in previous years and how to take
forward a department of inexperienced staff.
30
Year 7
This time frame marked the beginning my being able to formalise developments and
improvements to our ICT facilities. A permanent appointment was made for the second time
of a head of ICT. A previous co-ordinator of e-learning, he made a useful ally and addition,
allowing me to have meaningful discussions with a kindred spirit. More importantly, he and I
established ‘high-quality interpersonal relations’ and developed ‘a sense of collective
responsibility for performance outcomes.’ (Wageman and Gordon, 2006, 689) Our joint
conscientiousness for ICT developments became unwavering since his joining the school. His
commitment was invaluable when it came to adding to the champions for the VLE, the
administrative tools that I was creating and the use of the school website as a communication
tool. In return, I was able to provide the previous two years’ experience within the school and,
more importantly, the ICT department and all the previous performance issues associated with
the department.
Wageman and Gordon’s outline for orchestration entirely applied to this one, new
relationship:
• how the task is defined to a group
• the rules that managers establish about process (e.g. working alone or not)
• physical technology of the task
• allocation of resources (skills, information, and materials) (2006, adapted 688)
On every account, we collectively moved forward on issues that I found impossible to face
alone, given being mired in the day-to-day departmental affairs during the previous two years.
We began to write the way in which we would engage with the issues, sometimes needing to
put forward difficult viewpoints for consideration by my colleagues in senior management or
to the school’s governing body. Overall, we established a mutual understanding, secure dyad
and virtuous cycle of mindful awareness for each other’s needs.
Better equipped to handle relations, after feeling isolated in my sphere of expertise, I moved
on with other colleagues and thus the VLE agenda. This culminated in a high volume and
limited time frame training programme for nearly half the teaching staff. I managed to work
with these staff with mindfulness not previously apparent and developed a high volume of
teaching resources at the end of the school year. This application of CQ was primarily
instinctive, indicating my development in this area.
31
Summary
Years 5 – 7, although representative of the rewards from project work at School A, both in
terms of salary and position, were characterised by personal development. Not being able to
immediately take the less organic approach to implement systems was de-motivating. On
reflection, the development of my personal skills, particularly the multitude of dyads possible
in such a large school, was necessary in the light of Protean career progression. My intention
is to progress in this way further. This has highlighted how personal progression is more
important than technological progression, both for the organisation and for the change agent. I
had arrived with a strong portfolio of the latter and believed that to be the necessity for
satisfaction. Being prevented from undertaking this immediately, I was forced to look for
different avenues of development.
There now follows a description for a series of projects crucial to my regular practice of
triangulating technology with culture with people (see Figure G above). The balance of the
three aspects varies with each project and context, although all are key in implementing
appropriate change where technology is concerned.
32
Chapter 4 – Technology College Status, execution of targets
Experiences
School A provided a great many opportunities for professional development and there was no
time to think about whether I had work to do beyond my duties as a classroom teacher.
Included in this menu of activities were:
• a new vocational course in the use of ICT
• creation of a new school website
• creation and implementation of a virtual learning environment
• implementation of a network for the first time in the school’s history
• the use of video-conferencing
Whilst fully documented elsewhere16, it will be useful to reconsider in the context of this
dissertation the two projects that were interlinked, the new website and the VLE. Aspects
surrounding the staff intranet component at School A are discussed in the next section.
Concentration on these projects is not to take away from the others, but these give the best
indication of how my skills and working practices began to develop.
The VLE was as a result of the bid target for 24/7 learning at the school. There was little more
written about the target than this and it was left to my interpretation as to what it meant. So,
with my developing skills in Macromedia® ColdFusion®17 through the MSc course component
DMA, I set to work linking the project for teachers to set and mark work online with the
school’s management team’s blessing. Inextricably linked with this work was the school
website, given that both staff and students required a portal. Below is an illustration of how
the two intersected:
Figure J: Venn diagram intersecting Intranet and Website aspects18
16
http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc
17
http://www.macromedia.com/coldfusion
18
MSc Project Studies report, http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc, page 1
33
Knowledge – gained from the school culture and requirements of the VLE
This primary source quickly allowed me to surmise the notion that it was easier for a change
agent to amass the technical skills and create a VLE with a focus on the learners than to bring
in a technical expert, who would need to learn the culture of the school. It is a challenge to
begin work in a new environment and understand the new culture. It can be especially
difficult to ‘break into’ established dyadic relationships in a school, particularly in curriculum
areas. Bersin highlights the difficulty in bringing in the technical expert: ‘…the second most
common problem stated…was difficulty in working with subject-matter experts. You should
expect this to be a challenge.’ Having had a couple of years’ experience working in School A,
I had only to apply the technical skills to the culture, which I found to be a very positive,
forward-looking environment, hungry for technological changes to be brought about. This
was an easier environment, when I could provide the evidence that it would save individual
teachers an amount of time or move their working practices forward.
Skills – approach taken to the project

Having already taken students through project work via the GNVQ course, I was ready to
move them onto working via a VLE, particularly with my having been a student using similar
technology. Through the MSc Open and Flexible Learning Environments unit, I had a good
idea of what was needed for a VLE to succeed. I kept the model simple, with students being
able to log on, see the work set by their individual teachers, submit a response to the work,
and to have a response set by the teacher with a mark. This was a real innovation on teachers’
previous working practices and I found it straightforward to ‘sell’ it to both staff and the
management team.
In my work during the MSc Communication, Consultancy and Change unit (CCC), I
considered the work reflected by the Accel Team website:
Figure K: Vector diagram, indicating the extent to which organisations can meet goals (2002)
34
What this meant for me and my work in meeting the bid target of a VLE was an attempt to
negotiate the needs of the bid (and thus the management team goal for a VLC) with those of
the staff and students. I realised that my eventual success in implementing change lay on the
middle vector as the ‘degree of attainment’. Much time was spent in discussion with both
heads of department and with subject teachers in order to assess what capabilities they might
expect from new technologies in their classroom.
Skills – the technology

The project incorporating the use of Macromedia® ColdFusion® prior to the VLE and school
website covered a community of schools project for the benefit of the primary feeder schools
for School A. The intention here was to allow, through a database-driven web interface,
teaching staff to share ideas on issues such as literacy, numeracy, use of ICT, any of the
subjects taught and assembly ideas at primary level. The staff in these schools never met as a
collective to share ideas physically and the headteachers met three times a year, so rare were
the opportunities to exchange any views face to face. My core premise19 was that staff should
be concerned with sharing their ideas rather than figuring out how to write a web page.
I married my already developed skills in Microsoft ® Access ®, to create the database

underlying the new website, with developing skills in the predecessor to Macromedia ®
Dreamweaver ® MX20, the current range offered by Macromedia®, to write the web pages and
connect to the database. Through the auspices of a contact in the Learning and Teaching
Institute at Sheffield Hallam University, I worked closely with the staff there and overcame
any minor technical issues, never losing sight of what I was trying to achieve for the end user.
The key to learning the skills of data-driven web technology was that all developments came
as a result of resolving a need for the teaching staff in the primary school community. It was
not a case of trying to apply new skills to the situation for technology’s sake, although when I
read more widely on the topic and developed my skills base I did experiment to understand
the mark-up language more thoroughly.
19
This remains a core belief when applying any technology, not just web pages, to a context.
20
I learned CFML (ColdFusion mark-up language) through the program Macromedia ® UltraDev ®.
35
Ways of working
As it happened, I was working with a group of primary staff through the New Opportunities
Fund ICT training21 for primary schools and had direct contact with staff to test the website’s
functions. At these weekly courses, I liaised closely with two headteachers particularly who
were interested in taking the technology forward and who felt that the community might
benefit from the website for sharing ideas.
This small-scale approach is how I began with School A’s website and VLE, engaging in
conversation the lead departments for the bid22 and others who were interested in the
developments. Most vocal and helpful was the head of languages. Through the VLE, he
managed to place his resources, licensed for school use, onto a virtual platform with password
protection from cassette tapes. This also led him to consider how he might develop his
teaching practice through further use of software such as Microsoft® PowerPoint®,
incorporating this bank of resources available to students. It was left to the languages and,
through me, the ICT departments to make more complete use of the VLE by setting work,
students completing and marking online23.
The lead departments made some use of the website keywords and resources aspects of the
project, with the design technology department having over 300 keywords placed for the
benefit of its students.
Although the full use of the VLE was in its infancy, I was in a position (as a teaching
colleague with a full-time teaching commitment) to collaborate with staff, not in a supervisory
capacity, and strongly sell the benefits of using the VLE. Although it was disappointing not to
have the full extent explored by all the lead departments, there was a great deal of change
taking place through the use of data-driven technology. The user interface was being
primarily used by the administrative staff with reported ease on behalf of those departments,
which indicated that I had successfully implemented an appropriate technology for the
context.
21
This was underwritten by the TC Trust and validated by the Teacher Training Agency at the time, although the
year after the initial cohort completed their training, the TC Trust pulled the primary training from their offering
of courses.
22
For a Technology College at the time, the lead departments were design technology, ICT, maths and science.
23
By the time that the initial training was completed and staff members were making use of the VLE and
website, I was nearing the end of my time at School A.
36
This disappointment wasn’t felt at the time, given the success of the interface with staff who
took the time to engage in it.
What was more difficult was the incorporation of teachers using the technology for placing
online activities. The project combined several aspects of Child’s Planned and Emergent
developments, including a radical, emergent change by a self-selecting group in the school
and a incremental, planned change by the entire school via the nebulous in nature, bid target
represented by the 24/7 VLC. I turned it into reality through negotiation with key staff.
When I left School A, I trained and thus empowered the network manager with the ability to
update and archive the existing school website and VLE, having re-written the administrative
interface after thorough consultation with the network manager. Although I wasn’t paid for
doing this, I used the information in the Project Studies report and benefited from the
experience by needing to make the admin functionality more user-friendly.
Application of work components

To summarise, I used the MSc DMA, CCC and Project Studies units to create, drive and
document the work undertaken respectively. These were useful in their own spheres, giving
me intrinsic motivation to succeed, although I was answerable to the management team at
School A. This intrinsic motivation was rewarded by consultancy work for the school,
remunerated over and above my teaching contract for the creation of the website and intranet.
The result was a real discount monetarily on bringing a technical expert in to achieve the
same end for the 100 hours I billed to the school. Apart from this, this ‘expert’ had an insight
to the staff and had already made inroads to working dyadic relationships apart from technical
innovations.
I drifted from my initial focus on the technological aspects through reflection on how best to
implement the change. Working against the full integration of the new technology was my
being promoted to assistant headship at School B24.
24
With my input being vacated because of my departure, School A replaced my head of ICT post with a head of
ICT teaching post and the separate, new post of website and database administrator. The latter was a technically-
facing post. Since my departure, the person who filled the latter post has re-written the website with active server
pages (asp) mark-up language and the VLC project has yet to be replaced.
37
Chapter 5 – Development of school administrative capability
Experiences
Part of the website development work at School A involved my identifying the need to better
co-ordinate a paper-driven administrative function. This revolved around staff reporting
absences and requesting absence from school due to attending a course. There seemed to be a
great deal of time wasted on the data-processing of both types of form and, occasionally, the
loss of a form caused consternation for the running of the school25.
The drive to save administrative time and perceived difficulties has continuously been a
motivating force in writing data-driven web interfaces. Limited at School A to courses and
absences reporting, I expanded the staff intranet to include supervision room sendings26, room
and IT facility booking, posting vacancies and educational visits information. Over and above
these, I realised that there was a straightforward way of allowing school staff the ability to
alter web pages for which they wished to take responsibility through the staff intranet. This is
without the necessity to learn any web programming language, although the formatting of text
through basic hypertext mark-up language (html) is useful, hence my inclusion of the help
sheet at the end of Appendix E, after Page 10 (see screenshot below).
Figure L: Part of the html Text Help Sheet, included in Appendix E
The connection between the website and an intranet built upon my previous experience of
connecting the VLE and intranet. I had little desire to re-write a VLE for School B, given the
25
School A, although jettisoning previous development work, has retained the use of the system I put into place
for tracking courses and absences.
26
The supervision room is manned by a member of the management team, head of year group or head of
curriculum subject, as part of that staff member’s ‘teaching’ timetable. When a student gets to three warnings for
behaviour, a teacher is within his or her rights to send the student from the classroom to restore a calm
classroom. The order of events for tracking a student prior to the staff intranet sent is: the student arrives and
informs the member of staff of his/her name, subject sent from, year group, tutor group; the staff member logs
this on an A3 landscape sheet; the sheet (with all sendings from every subject and year group) at the end of each
day is photocopied for every HOD and HOY and for most of the SMT. This is then entered onto a mail merge
system for sending letters to parents and onto the MIS for student record purposes. For summaries, the
information then needs entering onto a spreadsheet. The time delays inherent in all parties receiving the right
information at the right time are outside the scope of this research, but do underline the importance of the staff
intranet project.
38
organisational difficulties for me, running the ICT department and yet saw value in giving
staff the same capability as I had in altering the pages of a website.
Knowledge – gained from learning school culture and requirements of administration

Creation of the intranet was a good way of gaining insights to the non-teaching functions of
both schools. As it happened, the head of languages at School A, who was so helpful in taking
forward the VLE project, was also the staff development co-ordinator and he found it difficult
to overcome some of the issues over staff absences, including:
• an overview of staff absence for non-academic reasons.
• tracking of staff courses for the purposes of performance management
• reviewing the ‘spread of expertise’ across staff through expanding the numbers of staff
attending courses
• checking the budgets paying for courses and that the school as a whole was in budget
For School B, my initial work involved me in getting to know the simple mechanics of
informing parents that their child had been sent to the supervision room. This meant speaking
to the deputy headteacher, heads of year and curriculum areas who monitored behaviour
issues generally and administrative staff who supported the latter in their monitoring role. The
key issues included:
• two week’s time delay in the sending of a student to the receipt home of a letter
• double entry of the sending, one for the management information system and another
for the mail-merge software to generate the letter27
• variability in the comments being logged to reflect the behaviour, which led to
difficulties in standardising a response to student and parents
To restore trust in the system, both for staff and students who were subject to it, and to allow
all staff, independent of which network they were members of, to access, enter and alter
information easily and neatly, I called again on a data-driven web interface.
27
This, already a waste of time during the double-entry, did not include the initial documenting of the sending by
the staff member manning the supervision room, on the A3 sheet log.
39
Ways of working
Diversifying my work toward administrative functions meant working much more closely
with the non-teaching staff, on whom I’d previously relied solely to assist my or other staff
members’ teaching needs. This was a challenge given the different types of dynamics than
those found amongst teaching staff. I truly needed to evolve relations quickly through the
stages suggested by Child toward a mutual understanding that what I was doing would really
give a time benefit to this group of staff:
CALCULATION  UNDERSTANDING  BONDING
“Being prepared to work with you” “Getting to know you” “Coming to identify with you as a person”
Figure M: Child’s Phases in the Evolution of Trust (2005, 348)
The identification with the administrative staff, though not undertaken as a means to an end,
did pay dividends, in that I quickly identified their issues with my own and surmised an
understanding of the key issues.
The bonding phase at School B is still ongoing. However, at School A, this phase was reached
with the entire management team in working through such challenging bid targets and the
transition by the school to a modern-facing institution looking to take its students much closer
to an employable situation. They left the school with up-to-date, independent ways of
working. As indicated in Chapter 6, my students were gaining some insights through my
involvement at a national educational framework level 7 course (my MSc) at level 2 (GNVQ
and Key Skills in ICT).
To take forward the intranets, I worked through the mechanical aspects of reporting absences
and courses at School A and, initially only for the supervision room project, the data flows at
School B. I applied the same data-driven techniques described in Chapter 4 to these new
scenarios. I cross-geminated my experiences with Microsoft ® Excel ® and taught myself the
use of web queries, which allowed both the administrative team and senior management team
at each school the ability to download summary sheets, giving the ability to filter and sort
information, and mail-merge data (for letter writing to students and staff).
40

The primary unit to impact on this work was the Project Studies unit, where I made two
mental transitions, one from curriculum to administrative work and another from School A to
School B. I noted in conclusion that, although I had already travelled the technically
necessary path to implement change, the ‘missing link is one of an in-depth knowledge of the
staff members who can help to take forward a new website’28, intranet included.
This notion is reinforced by Fahy:

“Organizational culture may present the most serious challenges to those responsible
for the strategic planning (Rogers, 1983; Stringer & Uchenick, 1986), including the
problem of distinguishing whether any resistance encountered is due to dimple
unwillingness or to real inability (Welsch, 2002).’ (2005, 16)
I overcame this, but it proved to be the beginning of a long, evolutionary rather than
revolutionary process. Change of this nature, as mentioned earlier, takes time as its key
resource. With time, it is likely that electronic means of communication through the staff
intranet and a data-driven website will become a full reality. Not fully explored, due to the
paper-driven communications at School B, I developed a central message board for staff to
see their messages, based on membership of administrative, curriculum, governor, pastoral or
general parts to the school. Those who are members of several, either directly through their
job specification or because they have an interest in an area, especially relevant for managers,
have access to several in addition to the general staff notices.
This initiative has been given recent impetus due to central UK government backing for all
schools to be sustainable in the future beyond 202029, thus making it necessary for the school
of 1900 students and 200 staff to cut down the production of paper waste. I believe that the
facility I’ve created could help in this endeavour, better than e-mail, given the directed nature
of notices. This seems to have brought me full circle from the initial idea that primary
colleagues could exchange ideas in a formatted way via a web interface.
28
MSc Project Studies report, http://ic-t.net/uni/ps_portfolio/ps_report_eak.doc, page 15
29
http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainableschools
41
Chapter 6 – My growth as educational practitioner
Experiences
Even before my teaching career began properly, I undertook work in the educational field,
soon after qualification to teach and appointment at School A. This was in no small part to my
chair of governors. His involvement in several spheres included:
• Comenius 2.2, funded by European community, this to develop the use of ICT in the
classroom for teachers from across Europe
• Euroland30, a CD-ROM developed by the Multimedia, Learning and Teaching
Institute, again with European funding
• Triple M31
For the first two, I was involved almost immediately upon joining School A. For the
Comenius input, I delivered a presentation about the use of ICT in the classroom to a multi-
national group of experienced teachers and helped the organisers with facilitating activities
for the group that were hosted by SHU. I worked closely with university staff, which certainly
helped me to pitch myself at this level. I involved students at School A in the experience,
which broadened their understanding and allowed teachers to try things out, based on the
meetings and presentations during their stay.
Also with the benefit of students from September 2000, I helped to facilitate a video-
conference with the attendance of five students. The aim was to use the Euroland CD-ROM as
a driver for discussion between School A’s students and teacher trainees in Finland and
Austria.
This sparked further work for me to help complete for SHU in completion of the Euroland
CD-ROM. I was set on during a two year period: firstly to write the teachers’ notes for the
activities in the Finland and England sections, checking for any faults that might exist on the
disk, and secondly to provide the resources for London, e.g. photographs of famous sites and
maps as found for the Underground, getting releases from copyright where necessary. An
example of the notes for teachers is shown below:
30
The resource for teachers of 10-14 year old students currently focuses on three countries, Austria, Finland and
England. It concentrates on three regional areas, the issues faced, e.g. mining in the Peak District, and the capital
cities of each. The activities contained on the disk allow teachers to set meaningful activities with the goal of
learning the material on the disk about each country.
31
A consortium was comprised of ‘EAMEC [European Association for Multimedia Education and Consultancy]
members and 3 other institutions: Charles University, Prague: Umea University, Sweden: and the University of
Santiago de Compostela, Spain. These nine institutions…[were]…participants in an Advanced Curriculum
Development Project known as “Triple M: Masters in Multimedia Education and Consulting, which…[was]…
supported under a Socrates programme by the European Commission for the period 1998 to 2001.’ (Sheffield
Hallam University, 2000, 5)
42
Figure N: Euroland Teaching Notes sample
For the third project, I was retained by SHU to act as administrative assistant for a senior
lecturer, taking notes at meetings that he facilitated in Santiago de Compostela, Prague and
Sheffield during the time that the MSc was being formed. Such insight made complete the
exposure that I was having, in my first year of teaching, to all levels of education, this
involving the preparation for a level 7 course, Euroland being pitched at level 1 and Comenius
being aimed at teachers of several years’ experience. I was charged with responsibility of
writing minutes to the meetings held, circulating drafts and agreeing changes. This allowed
the facilitation of the meeting without his having to remember key points, whilst attempting to
translate these within the context of a group having a wide variety of first languages that were
not English. I was asked to ensure, as far as possible, that the minutes contained objective
notation on the events as they transpired.
The crowning event in this time was my enrolment on the first cohort for OFLE and thus the
MSc, with clear insights as to the ethos of the qualification for which I studied. As discussed
above, School A gleaned benefits from my relationship with SHU, which was initially
sparked by my being employed by School A to begin with.
43
Knowledge and skills

My primary source of knowledge for helping with the Euroland project came in the form of
my theoretical education about secondary education, being able to interpret the educational
value of activities into notes that would be contained on the CD-ROM. Still fresh from
completing academic work on such topics as social constructivism, I experimented greatly
with my lower school (11-14 year old) students’ classes with different ways of learning the
curriculum, including using the Euroland material. As I taught most of the students in the
school throughout the year, it was made possible to have the same year group’s subject matter
delivered three to four times per week and thus hone the material being experienced by future
cohorts of students within a tight time frame.
For my work with SHU, I called upon my still recent training and enthusiasm for education
through the use of ICT. Coupled with this was the still recent experience I had for
presentation to groups and individuals from six years’ financial services experience. With
this, I was able to present with confidence, approach providers of material for Euroland,
negotiate copyright issues and liaise with the variety of individuals afforded by the Triple M
project.
The above skills are supported by Thomas’ suggestion about a primary skill when working
across these different cultures: ‘To shape the context of a cross-cultural interaction an
individual first has to have the ability to adapt.’ (2006, 80) I was regularly working in true
cross-cultural interactions, but also liaising with a variety of idiocentric and allocentric
organisations with few difficulties.
Ways of working
I ensured that each of the projects was balanced with the others in which I was involved for
the direct benefit of the school. This meant ensuring that, although these experiences were of
benefit to my educational insight, my first priority still lay with School A activities, especially
attempting to amass funding for the bid.
For my colleagues at SHU in the development of the Euroland and the MSc, I needed to
remain organised and regularly report progress to remove uncertainty. What I realised soon
into this consultancy work was that, although not directly involved in teams at every turn,
44
others depended upon my success: ‘Task interdependence in teams is the degree to which a
piece of work requires multiple individuals to exchange help and resources interactively to
complete the work (Wageman 1999).’ (Wageman and Gordon, 2005, 687)
As a student on the MSc, I ensured that I engaged with the community of learners who were
enrolled on the course and tutors, many of whom I’d met during the Triple M experience.
This translated itself into my approach to my own students (11-16 years old) and translated
my work with the first unit into facilitation of learning for them regularly. It seemed sensible
to expect that students at that age could work with the same methodology, in a tighter
framework initially, and thus gain knowledge first hand without me being the expert. I
concentrated myself, as a student, on the project work within the modules OFLE and DMA in
getting through in a methodical fashion and established working practices that remain today.

Involvement with several generations of the MSc units in OFLE, DMA and CCC saw me
getting the benefit of different group dynamics through the generations of each module. As
mentioned above, I looked to apply the working practices gained as a student with empathy
for students of School A.
This approach was particularly useful for the entirely project and coursework based GNVQ
ICT programme. Directly, there was a unit of work on website creation and reviews of
documents collected as a beginning to creation of their own by the students according to best
practice. Indirectly, and more important for their own academic development, was the ability
to plan work flows and to establish criteria for success. Having learned this myself,
particularly in the DMA module, I had a clear idea of what was needed by those studying
GNVQ and ensured they had activities that would allow them to learn such life skills. I found
the drift between student and teacher stimulating and, for me as a teacher, the two roles, in
terms of actual knowledge, blended. I believe that it is no longer sufficient to be a teacher of
knowledge that remains static over time. Rather, students in my classes are entirely capable of
learning new information and skills in the same independent fashion as I am.
45
Chapter 7 – Assistant headteacher, in charge of e-Learning
Experiences
As discussed in the closing stages of Chapter 3, it was a difficult transition to School B in
terms of the disappointments in not being able to immediately apply technology to the new
context. That said, it was important for my ability to surmise the working relationships that
would later become important for any developments at the new school. The greatest parts to
my strategic role were to become:
• VLE development
• ICT contracts
• Management Information Systems (MIS)
I’ll describe the latter two before exploring in depth the first project, as this is the one that
best highlights my current working practices, after six years of practice and developments.
These latter aspects were initially unimportant in my work, given especially the concentration
on my being head of ICT. However, they were to become integral parts of the overall VLE
project.
ICT contracts preceded my arrival, a creation of the head of ICT with whom I never got the
chance to work. They were negotiated with curriculum departments at School B and tracked
ICT activity in each area on the national curriculum framework. As part of this tracking, the
head of ICT created an intricate database system using Microsoft ® Access ®. This happened to
be driven by his studies toward a Masters qualification in its own right. Unfortunately, on my
arrival, there was no way of unpicking the technology and he was the only person with the
expertise on the system, including data flows, inputs by teaching staff members (who could
tell me little about how the system worked) and outputs to student reports. What happened
was that each subject area teacher would surmise a mark for the subject specific result and
another for the ICT element. All these marks for all subjects and all staff were entered into the
database by an ICT technician and reports were generated on the actions students needed to
take to improve their ICT capacity. The idea was solid, in terms of its tie with the national
curriculum for ICT. Unfortunately, in my first month of employment at School B, I had to
report to my senior management colleagues that it was no longer a viable system.
For the MIS, I initially had very few interactions with them, given that the deputy
headteacher’s role with reference to behaviour and attendance gave him an overview of the
data. Another assistant headteacher colleague had overview of the timetable. What has
46
emerged in the past years has been the necessity to spread the expertise as widely as possible
to colleagues at various levels, certainly beyond the technologically minded network manager
who seemed the centre of all things ICT, despite his apparent need to develop a student
focussed approach.
For the VLE, I was once again faced with the need to implement a nebulous (now
Engineering College) bid target of getting School B’s curriculum online. This time, however,
I was neither in the position, being in senior management, nor given the time nor mandate to
write from scratch a VLE. Apart from this, I had learned from the ICT contracts system
experience that a bespoke system might have been inappropriate for a school of this size
without a spread of ICT experience. I would implement a VLE this time, concentrating on the
teaching and learning aspects of such a project.
Knowledge and skills

The key to such an implementation was my application of the knowledge from having written
a VLE for School A, with its functionality and nature, being an aggrandised data-driven
environment. I also had the understanding of how students could be asked to engage with the
process of learning via a VLE, quite apart from the traditional model of learning. It was left to
me primarily for advice on the purchase of an appropriate VLE, given the plethora of systems
on the market. I allowed the following model to drive my thinking, where the ‘knowledge
domain remained independent of either teacher or learner:
47
Figure O: Britain’s VSM: The Viable System Model: key operational communication channels (1999, 23)
The next straightforward step, according to my previous experiences, was to get together a
team of individuals from different departments. This sat in harmony with the Capita, the
company from whom we had purchased Learnwise® VLE, trainer’s implementation plan. The
team varied in backgrounds and I relied on their sheer enthusiasm, rather than technical
capability, for teaching and learning within their departments.
A skill upon which I relied was the bringing together of issues from other parts of my role,
primarily the tracking of ICT contracts and use of the MIS information already held. I realised
that the system I had purchased could be used to arrange assessment events for the students to
complete for each of their subjects’ contracts, compiling a profile of the student’s competency
across the national level descriptors for ICT. The results of these students when placed
alongside all other such marks, moderated by subject staff as accurate or otherwise and scaled
could form the overall cross-curricular ICT level on the national curriculum framework.
Further to this, there was a direct link available with the MIS, due to the fact that the school
used Capita’s system for this as well. I had researched the links available between VLE and
MIS systems at other institutions at various levels and surmised that unless written from
inception, making such links was only good in theory. Such marks as ICT levels could
automatically be entered onto such items as yearly reports. My work with difficult areas such
as ICT contracts and MIS, through similar practices described in chapter 5, proved valuable.
48
Ways of working
Given the previous experience of schools as an idiocentric environment, I needed to counter
the culture predilection with building a team who would neither be paid any more nor
officially recognised on a school-wide basis as driving forward the e-learning project. I
understood, due to my creation and partial implementation of a VLE at School A and work
within the MSc OFLE unit, the nature of learning virtually. What of the teaching group?
If I was to look at the pilot group of teachers for the VLE, I needed to understand something
of their motivation as a team, their learning style(s), values and emotions, as suggested as a
requirement by Armstrong (2003, 561). What was their drive as learners in their own right?
Initially, I left the training to Capita, given the technical nature of such a stage in the
development. However, I got to know the team and worked more with a sub-group, who
showed themselves as more committed to the innovation for School B. This sub-group viewed
the VLE as an important step in their personal teaching and learning and were able to
communicate the requirements set forth to their heads of department, management being an
unrepresented group on the pilot team. They seemed to desire dissemination of the technical
and pedagogical aspects to the VLE. I fuelled this through individual work with each member,
after attempting several group meetings, which due to the frenetic nature of such a large
school proved impossible in maintaining momentum for the project. The sub-group seemed,
as a result of one on one support sessions, committed to a collectivist and thus counter-
cultural approach, as suggested by Triandis (2006, 24).
The next group for the development were the heads of department for whom there was an
active pilot team member. Of an original eight members, four remained with real activity and
feedback to me, in the core Engineering College departments of design technology, maths and
science and history. I managed to add our new head of ICT to this team, as he had experience
also of implementing a VLE at his previous school. It was left to these individuals to surmise,
communicate and agree a learning folder structure with their departments that would drive
their structure at one key stage or another.
My own training could then build on this and the computer-based resources held by each
department. This was fast becoming an emergent change, as defined by Child (2005, 288), as
it affected groups of staff outside their own departmental improvement plans. Although I
would be judged on the success of this implementation and the seemingly aspirational bid
49
target existed for the school to reach, I had to question whether the school was in a position to
make such a judgement, given its own starting point.
Having managed to amass the learning resources and get a commitment to each course
structure, I was ready to embark on the training, determined to make it work. Appendix F gives
a strong indication that I sought not to technically train, but to give something of the
philosophy built upon by the pilot team, that of e-learning more generally and the staff’s place
within this framework. I had timetabled just under half the staff for such ‘training’ to slot the
resources into the agreed framework for the benefit of their classes. I had linked the eventual
resulting commitment from such a large contingent to the project and thus their input for the
remaining staff and, more importantly their students, to philosophical considerations as to
where teachers and students fit into the innovation. These can be seen in appendix F, page 4.
The success of the messages was judged by the sample of 24 of 53 end of training
questionnaires in Appendix I32, in that 17 of 24 understood more about e-learning and the same
number felt (although not the same respondent set) that they could take it forward with their
students.
More substantial than this was that the agreed structure was fully populated by the science
department for its 11-14 year old students, design technology created resource bases within
different structures for courses aimed at 11-14, 14-16 and 16-18 age ranges, and maths made a
paradigm shift during the course of the training sessions. Initially, staff within the maths
department, apart from its pilot team member, had seen the VLE as an off-the-shelf revision
and assessment package. Having experienced the training with cross-curricular training
sessions, members saw the benefit for its students of realising it as a tool to be formed by the
needs of the learners.
The development is ongoing, with there now being three strands of staff, those who have
undergone the initial training above, those who have yet to receive the training, and those new
to the school without the working practices already in force for their departments. For the
second and third strands, I intend to cascade the training, believing that those from outside the
school will have a fresh outlook as yet unaligned to the culture of the school. For the first, I
32
I placed this feedback on an official footing, as indicated in Appendices G and H, with the questionnaires
backed by a permission to use data and anonymity statement. Given such a large number of staff being trained, I
would also need to prove to the governing body and senior management team that it was an appropriate use of
time, both for the staff involved and me.
50
intend to take forward the notion of learning object creation, ensuring that any resource they
buy, adapt or create is fit for their teaching and learning plans. If they are creating the resource,
they need the wherewithal to create it, without the technicalities obstructing their progress.

The one addition to my working practices has come from the theoretical input to my ways of
thinking about and working with teams. This and the creation of a training questionnaire have
arisen through my enrolment on this MSc Dissertation unit. Through reading within the
context of this study, I have gained new insights into how I should view other team members
and how I should consider them as carefully as my students when implementing a complex
innovation as a VLE. Further to this approach, I have also surmised the need to consider
further my dyadic relationship with each and every student, rather than seeing groups as a
whole. This is to consider their cultural background, in addition to their learning needs.
51
Chapter 8 – Evaluation
My career to date has been marked by a prompt rise in secondary education. This has had
both advantages, in terms of being placed in a position to implement change, and
disadvantages, in terms of needing to amass the educational wisdom that comes with dealing
daily over a number of years with students. Where I haven’t had the benefit of years, I have
relied on others’ experiences. This does not run counter to the almost entirely collaborative
approach taken at School A. Part of the project work undertaken there was to ensure that it
was understandable in light of the daily needs of both staff and students. I would not have
been able to succeed without the intervention of others’ collective, albeit individually faceted,
insights. Working in this way prepared my psyche for the challenges at School B.
There was so much to be done at School B, in terms of ICT curriculum oversight and
development that I put much of the technological development on hold. I worked again very
closely with a network manager to ensure that both hardware and software were in place for
when I was prepared to begin again.
Given the slowdown in project work momentum, my career was tacitly being added to with
the mark of mindful reflection on the numerous relationships I was having with colleagues,
now for general school benefit, rather than with technology in mind. For the potential benefit
to both the ICT department and the school more widely, I encouraged the appointment of a
non-ICT subject specialist, with a previous role in e-learning co-ordination to support me in
whatever future work was possible, especially the VLE.
The developments throughout have been with students’ benefit in mind and I have built an
educational practice on the foundation of learners being charged with the responsibility to
learn, rather than me being the source of all information.
This has translated into the same approach for staff and for this I have been repaid in the time
freed from doing for staff the tasks that they require doing. They, alongside students in my
charge, are generally empowered to engage in the processes needed for their future
development. I look to engender some aspects of the Protean career in my dealings with staff,
mostly that of staff being responsible for their development in the ICT arena after my initial
input, if necessary.
52
Chapter 9 – Reflection and discussion
It would have been possible to carry out the same tasks without such a career as this. Indeed
many educational workers undertake key roles within schools for many similar projects as
these. The distinguishing factor here is the awareness I have held for my career from the very
beginning. The empathy with my students over the potential they had to learn if they had the
opportunities I had during the MSc course and employment activities has been a constant. It is
one of attitude, rather than any level of technical skills.
How does one get a similar level of intervention for the development a Protean contract?
I had some fortunate input at various points. However, the common thread was my
willingness to spend time on the MSc course units and to be unwavering in the application of
every unit to my school context. I have also shared the ways of working with both staff and
students alike. The latter have been enthusiastic participants in my personal involvement in
every student-facing project outlined above. I have hidden few aspects of projects from them,
identifying with many of them as colleagues to some extent. This has had benefits directly for
them in the form of examination results, given their maturity to engage on this level and
indirectly in the form of ‘work’ relations.
What impact has culture had on projects?

For much of my work in its infancy at both schools, I have been a novice in truly
understanding the underlying culture and sub-cultures of the organisations. To some degree,
this has been valuable, with my not having any preconceived ideas over whether ideas would
or wouldn’t evolve into projects. I have carried enthusiasm into every eventuality. This has
been helpful when, at times, educational wisdom has been substituted by cynicism. Armed
with a better understanding of education generally and the pressures faced daily, termly and
yearly by every teacher in public, secondary education, my endeavours have turned to
understanding cultures on a departmental level for the current VLE project and to individuals,
especially the heads of department, each having their own improvement plans to face.
A culture can be created in terms of the ethos of a qualification, such as the GNVQ in ICT,
where coursework is the key element to passing the course. I remain of the view that the
bringing in of students to my emergent culture of DMA working practices helped in their
success. For my A-level students, their very attitude toward the end-user is imbued by my
53
Chapter 9 – Reflection and discussion
delivering a review of how I have approached end-users over the years, letting them drive
developments, rather than technology.
Where do I think my career will take the next?

As can be inferred, this question is more geared to focus for personal development than to
position, e.g. to deputy headship, or place. I believe that my studies on cultural awareness
have led me to the conclusion that it applies equally to student teacher relationships within the
secondary school classroom. I believe that in this new age of concentration of responsibility
for learning on students means that we as educationalists must cultivate relationships with
students that keeps them at the centre. This leads me to the conclusion that cultural awareness
and the multitude of dyadic relationships formed in the classroom for the key to future
facilitation of learning. There is no curriculum development currently in publication. This
comes as little surprise, given the very recent emergence of CQ as a theory. Given the recent
concentration on students’ ability to become emotionally literate employees, the differences
between EQ and CQ need further exploration.
54
Chapter 10 – Summary
I will revisit the initial questions in order to summarise the key points in this dissertation.
What chain(s) of developments led to the most improvement in professional growth?

A link in every chain has been the support by management teams in my endeavours. It has
then been left to my application of technology to a given context the studies I was undertaking
at the time. The MSc being built by university lecturers with an unceasing developmental
outlook for ICT professionals, the modules interlinked for me. I manufactured the projects
and documented each for part of the MSc. Metacognitive reflection on each project as they
progressed allowed me to steer my course accordingly, as currently with the VLE.
What factors were possible considerations when judging the endeavours at the time as
being worthwhile, especially given the teaching workload at the time?
The majority of these have come from either specialist schools bids or from strategic targets
underwritten by governors for curriculum improvements. The network manager at School A
reflected on my time there, stating that he was in awe of my commitment to the project work
being undertaken. During the initial three year’s of such work, I was highly motivated by
being able to apply technology to the context in an experimental way. When this was taken
away through circumstance at School B, I was forced into concentrating my efforts on the
‘people’ side of change agent. Although not having a direct impact on the projects to come,
what occurred was laying foundations in the form of relationship building.
What were the ways of working that can be substantiated through the current body of
research as being good practice undertaken at the time to fulfil the potential of the above
developments?
Team building, either through default or design, was the key component. Whilst this may
seem blatantly obvious in most contexts, what wasn’t so straightforward was the
empowerment of others at various levels to thrive in the new electronic environments. It has
been more than a technical innovation that I have asked of staff and students. I have attempted
to share my ethos and less apparent goals with others involved in the hope that they may grow
to share the same goals. Figure K applies equally to dyadic relationships as it does to
management vs subordinate goals driving overall success.
55
Chapter 10 – Summary
Once the team is built, it is necessary to foster those relationships, assuming nothing about
team members. This involves evolving a shared understanding, development and, at all stages
of a project, responsibility for the results.
Having an insight to the technical aspects of what might be proposed will always give an
advantage, as it is easier to apply the technology to the educational context. It isn’t necessary
to be the developer or ICT expert in order to gain this insight, though some might find it
difficult to trust in their instincts without either aspect.
What key strategies can be extrapolated from the pathways taken during the past years?
Seeking others with common goals is a starting point. Additionally, setting realistic
organisational goals that are well prescribed with clearly targeted outcomes matches this
search very well, as they will appreciate what they might view as a ‘common sense’ approach.
Time scales, although specified, need regular revision in order to ensure that circumstances
are considered that have impinged on the success of a project.
Decisions need to be taken as to whether someone within the organisation can ‘grow’ a piece
of technology from within, whether it needs a technical expert to come into the organisation,
or whether a solution can be bought. Of course, cost is often a consideration, but the true costs
of the innovation need to be calculated into the overall project.
How are these strategies currently being used in the context of School B and what is the
impact of these strategies?
The current project has been explored above in chapter 7. Without covering the same ground,
I ensured that we bought the package for potentially immediate effect. What wasn’t reckoned
on was the headteacher’s lack of support for Capita’s preferred initial training model of all
eight pilot team members being out of the classroom for two consecutive days. As this was
split between July and September, with a summer break in between, some of the lost
momentum stemmed from the lack of complete understanding by the whole pilot group to
carry forward the work.
The pilot team has now been superseded by the departmental working groups and they have
acted on the current ethos of the VLE. What remains is wide proliferation to learners.
56
Figures used
Figure Description Page

A Thumbnail of Chronology of developments, found in Appendix A 3
B Levels of impact and development, stemming from my work 4
C Population Leadership Program (PLP) Framework 9
D Armstrong’s ‘process of career management’, adapted 10
E Thomas’ Components of Cultural Intelligence 12
F Thomas’ Development of Cultural Intelligence 12
G Triangulation of Learner, Culture and Technology for the MSc ELMAC 16
H Child’s grid of Planned vs Emergent developments in organisations 19
I Sloman’s model for stages in implementing e-learning 22
J Venn diagram intersecting Intranet and Website aspects 33

Vector diagram, indicating the extent to which organisations can meet
K 34
goals
L Part of the html Text Help Sheet, included in Appendix E 38
M Child’s Phases in the Evolution of Trust 40
N Euroland Teaching Notes sample 43

VSM: The Viable System Model: key operational communication
O 47
channels
iii
References cited
Accel-Team (2002) Accel-Team Website, URL (accessed June, 2002): http://www.accel-

team.com/techniques/goal_congruence.html
Ambrosini, V. and Bowman, C. (2005). ‘Reducing causal ambiguity to facilitate strategic

learning’, Management Learning, 36, 4, 493-512
Armstrong, M. (2003). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, 9th edition.

London: Kogan Page
Aspinwall, K. (1998). Leading the Learning School: developing your school and its people.
London: Lemos & Crane
Bersin, J. (2004). The Blended Learning Book – Best Practices, Proven Methodologies, and
Lessons Learned. San Francisco: Pfeiffer
Britain, S. (1999) JTAP Report 41: Framework for Pedagogical Evaluation of Virtual
Learning Environments. Bangor: University of Wales
Child, J. (2005) Organization: Contemporary Principles and Practice, Oxford: Blackwell

Publishing
Fahy, P.J. (2005) ‘Planning for Multimedia Learning’, in Mishra, S. and Sharma, R.C. (eds)
Interactive Multimedia in Education and Training. Hershey: Idea Group Publishing
Hall, D.T. and Moss, J.E. (1995). ‘The new Protean career contract: helping organizations and
employees adapt’, in Osland, J., D. Kolb D. and Rubin I. (eds). The Organisation Behavior
Reader, 7th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Heide, A. and Henderson, D. (2001) Active Learning in the Digital Age Classroom,
Portsmouth NH: Heinemann
Hudson, B., El-Gamal, A., Gouda, A., Knutsen, E., Ruotsalainen, M., Peltonen, A., Pesonen,
M. and Tervola, T. (2000) ‘A European Learning Environment: Reflections on Teaching and
Learning in a Multinational Virtual Learning Community’. Paper to the International
Conference on Computers in Education / International Conference on Computer Assisted
Instruction: ICCE 2000, November 21 - 24 2000, Taipei, Taiwan, 991-998.
Hudson, B. (2003) Action research and action learning as aids to systematic reflection,
downloaded from Blackboard MSc ELMAC site.
Peterson, J. (2004) The Protean Librarian: Training and Development Program Part 2,
unpublished. [online]. Last accessed on 14/11/2005
at URL: http://students.washington.edu/jenpeter/Mentoring/JPpart2paperfinal.doc.
Senge, P.M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization,
New York: Doubleday
Sheffield Hallam University (June 2000) Draft report of the validation event held on 23 May 2000
relating to the validation of MSC/PGD/PGC IN EUROPEAN MASTERS IN MULTIMEDIA AND
CONSULTANCY (title not approved), Quality Office, SHU
iv
References cited
Sloman, M. (2001) The e-learning revolution: from propositions to action, London: Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development
Thomas, D.C. (2006). ‘Domain and development of cultural intelligence: the importance of
mindfulness’, Group & Organization Management, 31, 1, 78-99
Triandis, H.C. (2006) ‘Cultural intelligence in organizations’, Group & Organization

Management, 31, 1, 20-26
US Agency for International Development (2002) PLP Leadership Framework. [online]. Last
accessed on 14/11/2005 at URL: http://www.popldr.org/leadership.
Wageman, R. and Gordon, F.M. (2005). ‘As the twig is bent: how group
values shape emergent task interdependence in groups’, Organization Science, 16, 6, 687-700
Weller, M. (2002) Delivering Learning on the Net: the why, what & how of online education,
London: Kogan Page

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A “Protean” career and its impact on e-learning

A synthesis of personal studies and helping the learning school

MSc E-learning, Multimedia and Consultancy

Supervising Tutor: Prof Brian Hudson

Qualifications: BA (Hons) Classics, Pacific Lutheran University

Job Title: Assistant Headteacher, School B

Supervisor: Prof Brian Hudson

This dissertation illustrates a “protean” career, highlighting its impact on

This study adopts an autobiographical approach to inquiry, presenting

As a teacher enrolled on the MSc in e-Learning, Multimedia, Consultancy

The concept of the protean contract, through which the individual is

Chapter 2 Literature Review 6

Chapter 3 A Personal “Protean” Career 24

Chapter 4 Technology College Status, execution of targets 33

Chapter 5 Development of school administrative capability 38

Chapter 6 My growth as educational practitioner 42

Chapter 7 Assistant headteacher, in charge of e-Learning 46

Chapter 9 Reflection and discussion 53

B – Intranet User Guide, School A

C – Intranet User Guide (Admin Users), School A

D – Intranet User Guide (Students), School A

E – Staff Intranet User Guide, School B

F – Presentation used for VLE Training, School B

G – VLE Training Feedback Form, School B

H – Consent Form, School B

I – VLE Training Feedback Results

Figures used iii

Dissertation rationale and objectives

Questions for this dissertation

Figure A: Thumbnail of Chronology of developments, found in Appendix A

A personal Protean career

Contextual impact and developments

Figure B: Levels of impact and development, stemming from my work

The approach to this dissertation is to demonstrate how several developments as contexts

Reflections and Summary

The Protean contract

Figure C: Population Leadership Program (PLP) Framework

Figure D: Armstrong’s ‘process of career management’, adapted

Cultural intelligence (CQ), organisational dynamics, in relation to team working

Figure E: Thomas’ Components of Cultural Intelligence

Figure F: Thomas’ Development of Cultural Intelligence

Two areas for consideration by a person with CQ arise in Triandis:

Learning culture, in relation to education

Figure G: Triangulation of Learner, Culture and Technology in delivering MSc ELMAC

Aspinwall defines five organisational learning styles:

Learning technologies and their implementation

This time seems to be a common factor for creation of VLE content:

Figure I: Sloman’s model for stages in implementing e-learning

with my business experience. It was more straightforward in applying business acumen to

Although the network manager and I established a positive working relationship, an

Figure J: Venn diagram intersecting Intranet and Website aspects18

Skills – approach taken to the project

Skills – the technology

I married my already developed skills in Microsoft ® Access ®, to create the database

Application of work components

Figure L: Part of the html Text Help Sheet, included in Appendix E

Knowledge – gained from learning school culture and requirements of administration

CALCULATION  UNDERSTANDING  BONDING

Application of work components

This notion is reinforced by Fahy:

Figure N: Euroland Teaching Notes sample

Knowledge and skills

Application of work components