Bilingual education: non-European CLIL-related models

A suitable context for the realisation of the research objectives specified for this study in Chapter I (see section I.2.) was identified in the European Commission’s (EC) Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) initiative, part of the Lisbon strategy for Europe. The

particular RIS project which served as a setting for the present study was part of the 2005 edition of the RIS programme, which was a knowledge-diffusion and economic development initiative sponsored by the EC for the benefit of the new member states. It was based on the idea of transplanting regional-level innovation support tools, systems,

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and methodologies from advanced (Western) regions to novice regions (New Member States). The RIS programme was realised by funding inter-regional projects focused on a region from a new member state and involving the participation, in the form of knowledge-transfer, of regions with RIS experience gained in the previous editions of the RIS programme.

Each RIS project brought together multiple stakeholders from the focal novice region and partner institutions from advanced regions under a collaborative framework

structured according to the EC guidelines and procedures. The two main guiding tenets for collaborating on a RIS project were consensus building and knowledge transfer.

Each new project was in effect a new boundary practice (Wenger, 1998), participants in which declared the intention to work together jointly to develop a strategy for the development of a sustainable and effective regional innovation support system.

III.1.1. EU RIS Western Poland

EU RIS Western Poland (EU RIS) was the particular RIS project which provided the research setting for this study. EU RIS was based in the region of Western Poland, with the regional capital in the city of Portovo (the name of the project and the names of participating regions, cities, organizations, and individuals have been disguised for reasons of confidentiality). Apart from Western Poland, two other European regions also took part in EU RIS, both from the United Kingdom: North UK and South UK.

Both North UK and South UK participated in the EU RIS project as ‘foreign experts’, i.e. their role was to be that of advisors, trainers, sources of expertise in regional innovation and business support systems, as well as of practical experience with

developing and implementing regional innovation strategies. The partnership came into being around the aim of developing a Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) for the

Region of Western Poland which would serve the purpose of developing the economic potential and competitiveness of the region.

The EU RIS project was an international partnership among eight organisations (see Table 4.1). The ‘foreign expert’ regions were represented by their respective regional development agencies: the North UK Development Agency (NDA) and the South UK Development Agency (SDA). The Western Poland partners included: the Western Poland Development Agency (WDA), the Office of the Governor of the Western Poland

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Region (GWP) representing the regional authorities, two universities: Portovo University (PU) and the Portovo University of Technology (PUT), an independent (commercial) research institute - Portovo Institute for Market Economics (PIME), and the Industrial Design and Research Centre (IDRC).

The stated purpose of the EU RIS partnership was to create a regional innovation support system through knowledge sharing and joint knowledge creation as well as through consensus building among multiple stakeholders in the region. It was a weakly structured context based on voluntary participation, which was in turn based on the financial incentives associated with access to European funds. The structure was designed according to the European Commission (EC) guidelines, with the dominant role assigned to contractual arrangements and project management controls such as budgets and progress reports. The core idea behind EU RIS is depicted in Figure 4.1.

Apart from the coordination between contributors from three European regions and eight key organisational partners, collaboration was required between two project teams: the team working on the EU RIS project funded by EC and the team working on the implementation of a ‘local’ RIS project (RIS-A), which had been developed in the focal region independently of the European RIS framework prior to the EU RIS bid being submitted to the European Commission. The official aim of the ‘European’

project was to complement and extend the ‘local’ project. Further details of the EU RIS partnership and its participants are discussed in Chapters IV and V.

III.1.2. Empirical and Theoretical Suitability

In significant ways, the RIS programme presented an opportune setting for the realisation of the stated research purpose. Firstly, the RIS’ emphasis on knowledge transfer between stakeholders provided a suitable ground for a study of knowledge-sharing interactions. Secondly, the international dimension of RIS projects brought with it geographical, temporal, and cultural differences in addition to the usual organisational and practice differences present in inter-organisational settings. This added complexity and thus depth to the consideration of the issue of the salience of boundaries. Thirdly, the inter-organisational dimension of the RIS programme and the EC’s insistence on building consensus among RIS stakeholders helped make transparent the power dynamics and engagement strategies which tend to be more obscure in

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organisational contexts. Finally, the EU RIS project provided an opportunity to observe a new boundary practice in the process of being formed by the participating

stakeholders. This highlighted participants’ strategies in relation to knowledge and status and enabled a focus on boundary reification practices as opposed to boundary transcendence practices, which might be expected to be more evident in established domains.