Exploring educational ecosystems: insights from the implementation of SchoolWeavers tool in Catalonia

Abstract

Education has undergone significant changes, leading to more complex and collaborative approaches that recognize schools as ecosystems where diverse stakeholders interact. Consequently, new processes and tools are needed to promote leadership within these ecosystems. To guide school leadership teams, we developed and piloted the online tool ‘SchoolWeavers’, which fosters relationships and collaboration across the ecosystem to improve learning and well-being. This study examines the initial outcomes of using SchoolWeavers as a school leadership strategy in five schools in Catalonia, Spain, by surveying 1,615 members of the ecosystem, including teachers, leaders, staff, families, students, and community professionals. The aim is to investigate school ecosystem dynamics through the domains addressed by the tool, such as empathy, trust, shared purpose, innovation, collaboration, equity, and personalized learning, identifying opportunities for improvement and ways to foster stronger educational ecosystems. Leadership teams showed the highest scores and positive perceptions, while students rated the domains lower. Community professionals had low participation, indicating weaker collaboration with the community. Trust and equity received the highest scores, whereas innovation and personalized learning were less valued. This study highlights the need for tools to strengthen educational ecosystems and identifies areas for improvement, particularly in innovation and student agency.