Network Logic - Index of

6. Networks, knowledge
and innovation
reflections on teacher learning
David H Hargreaves
A response to the previous chapter, ‘Untangling the threads’, by Ann
Lieberman and Diane Wood.
Academic educationists, like teachers in schools, have strongly held
values. Naturally they choose to study phenomena that relate to those
values and preferably support them. Ann Lieberman has a
distinguished reputation for her work on teachers. I count myself
among those influenced by her edited collection of essays, Building a
Professional Culture in Schools and her book Teachers – Their World
and their Work. 1 I imagine that she was thrilled to discover what was
happening in the National Writing Project, for this is what appears to
be a resounding success story about her passion for professional
learning among teachers. Her essay, with Diane Wood, glows with the
excitement and enthusiasm experienced by educationists who
discover some evidence that supports their beliefs and that is
welcome ‘good news’ to a profession longing to have its own beliefs
and commitments validated, especially when these collide with
government-led initiatives driven by the ‘standards agenda’.
In this short response to their essay, which in many ways inspires
me as much as it does them, I want to set their ideas and findings in a
wider conceptual framework and a rather more sceptical perspective
on the achievements of the National Writing Project (NWP). In both
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