Abstract:

The rapid developments of society delimit a more complex role for the teacher. Teacher development proves to be a necessity since it constantly updates their knowledge and skills and develops their abilities and aptitudes. However, most of the teacher training programs implemented today are programs of traditional form, school-based and the majority of them is not taking into account the principles of adult education. It has been suggested that distance education may have a significant contribution as it is a flexible form of learning. Teachers, regardless the years of their teaching experience and their specialization, recognize the weaknesses of conventional, traditional and face to face training programs and emphasize the need to use distance learning methods for their development. Specifically, the use of networks as a means of developing. Essentially, school networks help schools to learn from the efforts of other schools.

The ultimate goal of school networks is to accelerate the change process in schools. School networks are organized and operate based on the belief that learning process cannot be improved without improving teacher education and the fact that teachers learn better by sharing ideas, planning together, having critical friends and reducing the isolation faced by most schools. School networks help us to learn to identify, analyze and solve problems affecting teaching and learning processes. University partners in school networks expand the learning continuum and help reduce tensions of top-down versus bottom-up, pre-service versus in-service, theory versus practice and formal versus informal organizational structures.

Specifically, in the Greek educational context, the development and cooperation of school networks, as the means to promote the possibility of greater communication, cooperation and development that will contribute significantly to the improvement of education, is nowadays quite intense. Networking between schools, teachers, principals, teacher trainers, researchers, higher education institutions and policy makers have as their focal point an innovative and flexible place of an online discussion on creating a sense of ownership about change and implementing change and reform initiatives.

Our newly started research program is based on the concept of the above networking practices and aims at showing: 1) how a network or networks of schools, teachers, principals, researchers, academic institutions will be able to form learning networks to encourage teachers and principals continuing professional development and 2) how the connection of theory and practice shapes practices of action collaborative research, encouraging participation in decision making processes and formulating educational policy in Greek schools with diverse student population including not only foreign students but also repatriated ones. It is a quite demanding and ambitious research project because it seeks to help repatriated and foreign students to be educated like native students and improve the provided education of the Greek schools for all students in general through teachers’ continuing personal and professional development as well as the empowerment of all the partner schools and other external bodies.

Keywords:

School networks, continuing professional development, decision making process, project.