Micropolitics of School Innovation: Recruiting, Mobilizing and Converting Teachers

Abstract

Drawing on a mixed method research, this paper deals with teaching and technological innovation policies in the field of education, focusing on the implementation of the “Digital Agenda” in Sardinian schools from 2012 to 2015. Following Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory (1984; 1989) and S. Ball’s micro-political perspectives on the analyses of social processes within schools, this article aims to highlight the mobilization of teachers as policy actors i.e. as groups who help to convey and disseminate the meanings and concepts that define the policy and its moral and political objectives. In particular, we should like to emphasize three emerging dimensions of teacher commitment in the digital project: conversion, implying the acceptance of an ensemble of beliefs; mobilisation, implying the commitment to collective or organizational actions; materiality, implying a new material order that conveys a new logic of things.

Pitzalis M., De Feo A. (2019) "Micropolitics of School Innovation: Recruiting, Mobilizing and Converting Teachers " Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(1), 69-90. DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-4  
Year of Publication
2019
Journal
Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
Volume
11
Issue Number
1
Start Page
69
Last Page
90
Date Published
02/2019
ISSN Number
2035-4983
Serial Article Number
4
DOI
10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2019-1-4
Issue
Section
Special Section