ROLE: The school as a knowing organization - Knowledge management as a strategy for continuous teacher development

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

Organizations have knowledge. The knowledge is typically dispersed throughout the organization. Some of it is codified in documents and policies, some is embodied in projects and strategies, and some is tacitly held by individuals and small groups. The problem of knowledge management is that an organization's knowledge is often locally produced, haphazardly disseminated, and ineffectively indexed. It is inaccessible when and where it is needed. Knowledge management techniques take a participatory approach to identifying, codifying, and integrating knowledge resources throughout the organization. Their objective is to help people make sense of their organizations, to develop and maintain trust, to make commitments and take responsibility, to more effectively challenge, negotiate, and learn, and thereby to improve the quality of the contributions people make to their organizations. This project will adapt knowledge management concepts and techniques, and the information technology they employ, to understand and enhance knowledge management in school organizations. We will work with school administrators, but chiefly with teachers. First, we will investigate and characterize knowledge management practices as they exist today, and identify needs and opportunities to improve knowledge management. We will facilitate teacher-initiated development of organizational knowledge resources, and identify, and accessibly codify the critical knowledge of the school systems. We will assess the impact of this intervention on teachers, on the school system, and on the perception of the school by the community. We will compare and contrast this analysis and intervention to knowledge management interventions now becoming typical in business organizations.