Focus Group Dialogues as A Method for Identifying A School's Developmental Needs

Source: European Journal of Teacher Education, Volume 31, Issue 4, November 2008 , pages 379 - 388

This article presents a study in which teachers describe the working situation at their school.
The goal of the study was to find out in what respects the school needed to be developed.
This was a case study and the method for collecting data was focus group dialogues.
All teacher teams at a Swedish secondary school participated. The teacher teams focused on structural problems for the school. When analyzing the activity in the team dialogues, problems on the group level also appeared. The necessity of teacher dialogue when initiating school development is observed. The functioning of the group is also recognized as important.