Knowledge work in school development: governance, leadership and epistemic practices in two development projects

Purpose This study explores how teachers and school leaders mobilise and negotiate multiple knowledge sources in school development work and examines how governance structures and leadership practices shape the forms of knowledge work that emerge across policy-driven and locally initiated development projects. Design/methodology/approach The study adopted a qualitative, exploratory and longitudinal case-study design involving one Swiss primary school and two simultaneous school development projects, one policy-driven and one locally initiated. Data sources included observations, interviews and document analysis. Drawing on Nicolini's (2012) practice-based approach, the analysis focused on practices rather than individual actors, enabling the identification of the knowledge sources mobilised by teachers and school leaders in school development work. Findings The findings show that governance structures and leadership practices shaped the forms of knowledge work that emerged across the two projects. While the policy-driven project primarily focused on aligning practice with external reform requirements, the locally initiated project enabled greater collective exploration and development. The findings further demonstrate that meaningful knowledge work depends on organisational support, including time, resources and structures for collaboration. Research limitations/implications The study contributes to research on school development by showing how governance structures and leadership practices shape the forms of knowledge work that emerge within schools. It further highlights the importance of analysing school development as collective and practice-based knowledge work embedded in organisational and relational contexts. Practical implications The findings suggest that meaningful school development requires more than access to external reforms or knowledge sources. Schools and school leaders need to create organisational conditions, such as time, collaborative structures and opportunities for collective interpretation and development, that enable teachers to engage actively with knowledge in locally meaningful ways. Originality/value These insights highlight the complexity of knowledge integration in educational settings.