Teachers' personal knowledge management: a case study in a Taiwanese elementary school context

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Lin, Y.-H., 2006. Teachers' personal knowledge management: a case study in a Taiwanese elementary school context. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

Under the challenges of the knowledge economy and the implementation of the new national curriculum in Taiwan, both elementary schools and teachers are facing the necessary change in the purposes and practices of teaching and learning. Accordingly, this research sets out to explore teachers' professional development in relation to the concepts and practices of knowledge management (KM) and its influence on 'schools as learning organisations' within the Taiwanese elementary education context.

Within this thesis, the theoretical and practical orientations of teachers' personal KM are built by examining and integrating the subjects of knowledge, KM and personal KM, KM in education and specifically in Taiwanese education, teachers' knowledge, teachers' professional development consisting Kelly's personal construct theory and school improvement with particular reference to 'schools as learning organisations'.

The constructionist research methodology was adopted to explore and understand the social phenomena and multiple realities of teachers' personal KM in a Taiwanese elementary school. The nature of the research, the suitability of constructionism as my worldview, the impact of my prior knowledge and my role on the investigation and the appropriateness of ethics to the research setting and the fitness of case study approach and various qualitative data collection and analysis methods to the research were justified and applied. The school-based investigation was conducted from September 2004 to January 2005 in an elementary school in Tao-Yuan Country in Taiwan mainly involving six teachers and two administrators. The implications of the methodology for trustworthiness, authenticity and reflexivity of the research were subsequently examined.

Within the case school context, the social phenomena of how the teachers carried out the processes of personal KM individually and collectively are reconstructed and the multiple realities of how the school supported an environment to promote such processes are represented. Consequently, the research findings are discussed and a set of practical recommendations are proposed in accordance with my understanding of the literature and the school setting.

Item Type:

Thesis

Creators:

Lin, Y.-H.

Date:

2006

ISBN:

9781369324617

Identifiers: