New article for Dr. Maynes and Holdsworth

Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Maynes, associate professor in the Schulich School of Education, and Sally Holdsworth, Master of Education student, on the publication of their co-authored article in the Canadian Journal of Education.

Titled But what if I fail? A meta-synthethic study of the conditions needed for teacher innovation, the article is available right here.

Here is the abstract:This meta-synthesis investigates the conditions that support teacher innovation in schools. Twenty-seven articles that report on studies using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology were selected for this analysis. The articles were analyzed using Hargreaves’s and Fullan’s concept of “professional capital” as a framework, and nine emergent themes were developed. Most significant among the themes were the impact of teacher attitudes and beliefs, and the importance of school structure on how teachers initiated and sustained innovations in teaching practice. This research is limited by the ability to generalize results. This limitation is due to the variety of methodologies and sample sizes employed by studies used for the meta-synthesis. This article offers a discussion of the importance of local adaptation in supporting teachers to develop and sustain innovations that lead to positive school change.