Mat kennara á félagslegum tengslum í grunnskólum og samband þeirra við námsárangur og starfshætti

The literature on school leadership and management emphasizes the importance of good relations between school leaders, teachers, parents, and students (Harris, 2008, 2014; Hoy & Hoy, 2009; Kaplan & Owings, 2015; Sergiovanni, 2006, 2009). Sergiovanni (2006) states that the major difference between old and new management theories can be manifested in their respective emphases on “power over” and “power to.” He states that the major emphasis of traditional theories was to seek “reliability and predictability by increasing control over events and over people,” whereas new theories seek predictability by “controlling probabilities” through shared goals and purposes (pp. 96–97). His thesis is that schools need to be developed as moral communities with proactive and reflective cultures concerning teaching and learning. According to Hargreaves and Fullan (2012), the term “professional capital” is composed of three sub-elements: human, social, and decisional (human capital refers to the knowledge and skills involved in teaching and learning, social capital to the quality of interactions and relationships in schools, and decisional capital to discretionary judgments and decisions in practice). The level of social capital can, accordingly, be seen as demonstrating different relationship settings in schools and “powers to” collaborate and achieve desired ends. Different relationship settings in schools suggest differences in capital and “powers to” collaborate and achieve desired ends. Social relations and academic achievement have been researched quite extensively since the Coleman study in 1966. Most of those studies have focused on the relationship of students’ social background to achievement, but others have focused on the link between school characteristics and achievement. Generally, these studies show a positive relationship between good relations within schools and the academic attainment of students (Acar, 2011). It is, therefore, of interest to explore, in an Icelandic context, the connection between social relations among teachers and achievement in compulsory schools by asking: • What characterizes social relations in compulsory schools and do they differ among schools? • What is the relationship between social relations and academic achievement? • What is the relationship between social relations and school practices? Data were derived from the mixed method research project, “Teaching and Learning in Icelandic Schools” (Gerður Oskarsdottir, 2014). The participants were 440 teachers in 20 compulsory schools (students aged 6–16) who accepted an invitation to take part in the project. The schools belonged to four municipalities. Data were collected from teachers and parents with questionnaires and student achievement scores from national tests. Online questionnaires were developed by the research team. The questionnaires included questions about the teachers’ backgrounds, their work conditions, teaching practices, and attitudes toward the school, with special emphasis on their development toward cooperative learning and inclusive education. The response rate was good, around or above 80%. The data were analyzed using SPSS 24. The outcome variable in this data analysis is a scale measuring social relations. The scale was constructed using ten questions on a 7-point scale where high scores indicated considerable social relations. The reliability of the scale was good, alpha = .92. The 14 schools, which consisted of grades 1–10, were divided into three groups based on averages on the scale measuring social relations. Group 1 included the four schools with the highest scores, Group 2 had the six schools in the middle, and Group 3 comprised the four schools with the lowest scores. Academic achievement was measured using scores from centrally administered standardized tests in Grades 4, 7, and 10 in the subjects of Icelandic and mathematics. Averages were calculated for school-based scores over a three-year period. The average social capital was M = 5.2 (SD = 0.93); the lowest possible score was 1 and the highest possible score was 7. The majority of participating teachers believed that social relations were strong in the school where they worked. Women scored significantly higher than men, but there was no difference based on age or work experience. However, there was a significant difference among schools on the scale measuring social relations. The school with the lowest average scored M = 4.2, but the school with the highest average scored M = 6.0. Teachers who taught in open classrooms believed that social relations in their school were stronger than those who taught in closed, traditional classrooms.