Organizational inquiry teams: Capturing the work of a newly formed inquiry team and its influence on organizational learning and professional practice

Inquiry into practice has been conceptualized as a strategy for both professional and organizational learning. Inquiry work conducted by practitioners has been a critical component across the literature of professional learning models in education such as action research, collaborative inquiry, practitioner inquiry and professional learning communities. When professionals surface organizational problems, explore their individualized and collective assumptions, seek out evidence for analysis, intervene in response and potentially re-shape their organizational knowledge there is a potential for both professionals and the organization to learn. The inquiry team at the Hightown High School (a pseudonym for a real district in New York State) consists of teachers, a social worker, school administrator and district director. This diversity of professionals on the HHS inquiry team is different from models of school inquiry teams that consist of teachers examining their instructional practice and student achievement. The HHS inquiry team has been charged with examining the school as an organization and in particular, their research question is "what shifts in school culture will positively influence student achievement?" This study seeks to understand the ways in which a newly formed high school inquiry team enacts their work during their first year and a half. The study takes an ethnographic approach to understanding and analyzing the ways in which the members of the inquiry conducted and actualized their work. The research questions asked are: How does the inquiry team enact its work? How does the work of the inquiry team support organizational learning? What have the team members learned from their inquiry work that they believe will influence their professional practices? The findings examine the ways in which the inquiry team structured and enacted their work while also addressing the ways in which both professional practice and organizational learning were supported and/or influenced. The findings suggest that schools consider "organizational inquiry teams" as a strategy for fostering organizational learning, professional learning and innovative solutions to issues of school change.