Schools as learning organisations: an investigation of teachers' perspectives to fostering Peter Senge's five disciplines in New Zealand primary schools

Abstract

This research investigates the perspectives of teachers' in three New Zealand primary schools on the phenomena that influence schools to foster Peter Senge's (1990) five disciplines and hence become learning organisations. Information was gathered within the framework of Peter Senge's (1990) five disciplines; personal mastery, systems thinking, shared vision, team learning and challenging mental models. Interviews were structured around determining the restraining and driving forces fostering each of these disciplines. The inquiry intended to discover what teachers believed to be fostering and hindering each of the five disciplines from occurring. This was used to determine common themes, which fostered or inhibited each of the five disciplines and finally the implications for developing schools as learning organisations. The findings reveal that the three schools identified a wide range of forces that fostered and inhibited their ability to practice the five disciplines. There were nineteen major forces that were repeatedly identified in each of the schools, however there were three critical forces that were critical to all of the disciplines and therefore considered to be critical influences in fostering schools as learning organisations. These were, time, communication and personal attitudes, values and beliefs. The findings suggest a leader, who modelled and facilitated the attributes of the disciplines, was a major force for promoting each of the disciplines in the schools and hence fostering schools to be learning organisations. Further research to study the leadership and the influence leadership has with fostering schools as learning organisations needs to be undertaken, to provide conclusive evidence to support this idea.