Stories about good education - A qualitative empirical study into formulating and using school vision stories

Educational professionals as well as academic scholars agree that a clear educational vision is of utmost importance for successful school leaders and schools. What this vision contains, and how it is communicated and used is less clear. This study proposes a conceptual framework for educational visions as 'stories about good education.' The qualitative empirical part investigates to what extent school leaders and school teams of primary schools in the Netherlands are able to formulate these stories about good education and how they are used in school improvement projects. The results show that while school leaders and teams vary greatly in the extent to which they articulate stories about good education, only few formulate stories that include both educational aims and design principles, which are shared in the school community, directive for the school practice and in rich interaction with cultural sources.