Conference Agenda

Cuban (1993) likened educational change to a seascape whereby stormy winds create massive waves on the surface, some turbulence below the surface while on the seabed all remains calm and the work carries on as before. In this sense, reform efforts that seek to prompt change towards improving education quality and equity have relied heavily on prescriptive and one-size-fits-all approaches based on evidence from high-performing countries and schools; in contrast, the educational improvement literature has advocated to move from decontextualized top-down approaches that cause big waves but make little difference. This is particularly important in the case of schools facing challenging circumstances, where social, educational and political contextual factors matter.

Schools facing challenging circumstances are generally located in socially disadvantaged contexts, characterised by poverty, unemployment, physical and mental health problems, and poor access to social services (Muijs et al. 2004). Moreover, there is evidence that these schools face internal issues that are multidimensional and intertwined, including ineffective leadership, poor quality teaching, lack of resources, and high teacher turnover (Meyers and Murphy 2007). Although it is challenging to initiate sustained change processes in this type of schools, which require drastic transformations in schools’ organisation, professional capital and management, there is evidence that they can increase their performance by building internal capacity for improvement (Leithwood, Harris, and Strauss 2010). Given the challenging conditions of the context in which these schools are situated, and the internal difficulties they face to build capacity for improvement, the evidence suggests there are several factors that can contribute to building such capacity.

Regarding factors internal to these schools, research indicates that principals are key to generating improvement and leading turnaround processes. School leaders with high capacity, flexibility and adaptation are required, willing to mediate multiple external demands and internal needs of the educational community, to sustain the processes of change and improvement based on flexible and systematic planning and implementation (Meyers and Hitt, 2017). Similarly, leadership practices that make a difference for the improvement of schools in challenging circumstances focus on learning, promoting conditions to set and achieve ambitious goals of learning and teaching, based on shared leadership and accountability (Townsend, 2019). Conversely, regarding external factors, the development of initiatives that create networks involving research practice partnerships (RPPs) has been shown to be an important mechanism for moving beyond more traditional approaches to improvement, underpinned by authentic collaboration focused on addressing issues with classroom practice or learner experiences and outcomes (Madrid Miranda and Chapman, 2021). Similarly, evidence also has shown how quality assurance and accountability policies can foster the improvement of schools facing challenging circumstances by providing school leaders and teachers with useful performance feedback that allow them to make sense of accountability demands and identify issues under their control to seek solutions that help them turn their schools around (Camphuijsen, 2021).

In this symposium, we bring together different perspectives from Europe and Latin America to critically discuss how schools facing challenging circumstances address educational change and improvement, in diverse social, educational and policy contexts.

The crisis caused by COVID-19 disrupted education worldwide and intensified the difficulties faced by schools in challenging contexts. In Chile, teachers and leaders had to react quickly to school closures and the transition to remote education, in the midst of uncertainty and ambiguity in governmental guidelines (González et al. 2020). In this scenario, difficulties historically faced by schools located in contexts of social and economic disadvantage were intensified and resulted in more pronounced gaps in the educational opportunities of their students. Promoting improvement in this type of schools is not an easy task, as the problems they face are often multidimensional and intertwined (Hochbein 2012). However, it is possible to consider schools in challenging contexts as complex systems that require an adaptive approach (O’Day 2002). This calls to reflect on how school leaders can introduce innovative solutions that coherently combine pedagogical, managerial, and social justice logics to develop capacities for whole-school improvement (Woulfin and Wiener, 2019). This conceptualisation is useful for understanding both the potential and limitations of educational leadership in challenging contexts by emphasising the dynamics of learning and adaptability (Koh and Askell‐Williams 2021). The ability of an organisation to learn from its ecosystem, that is, to identify, assimilate, and take advantage of information from the environment to apply it in processes of innovation in its routines, policies and practices, is called absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal 1990). This paper presents a qualitative case study of six Chilean schools in challenging contexts, exploring how they developed adaptations to ensure educational continuity, employing the perspective of absorptive capacity. 12 school leaders and six ministry advisors were interviewed twice between 2020 and 2021, for a total of 36 interviews, and data were analysed through a Qualitative Content Analysis strategy. Findings show that school leaders faced complex problems related with the challenging circumstances of their communities during the pandemic, and their proposed solutions to these problems were mediated by their internal organisational conditions, the characteristics of advisors and their interaction. When external advisors established a contextualised and flexible relationship with school actors, schools fostered organisational learning that led to the development of improvement actions. The study shows that it is relevant to continue researching the role of educational leadership in this type of schools from an organisational learning perspective, to understand to what extent principals can promote educational improvement in challenging circumstances.

References Cohen, Wesley M, and Daniel A Levinthal. 1990. “Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation.” Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1): 128–152. González, Álvaro, María Beatriz Fernández, Mauricio Pino-Yancovic, and Romina Madrid. 2020. “Teaching in the Pandemic: Reconceptualizing Chilean Educators’ Professionalism Now and for the Future.” Journal of Professional Capital and Community 5 (3/4): 265–272. Hochbein, Craig. 2012. “Relegation and Reversion: Longitudinal Analysis of School Turnaround and Decline.” Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk (JESPAR) 17 (1–2): 92–107. Koh, Gloria A., and Helen Askell‐Williams. 2021. “Sustainable School‐improvement in Complex Adaptive Systems: A Scoping Review.” Review of Education 9 (1): 281–314. O’Day, Jennifer. 2002. “Complexity, Accountability and School Improvement.” Harvard Educational Review 72 (3): 293–329. Woulfin, Sarah L., and Jennie Weiner. 2019. “Triggering Change: An Investigation of the Logics of Turnaround Leadership.” Education and Urban Society 51 (2): 222–246.

This paper focuses on a systematic attempt to rethink roles and responsibilities across an urban education district within a relatively small and hierarchical education system (Chapman, 2019). In doing so, it draws out the lessons and learning from the Every Dundee Learner Matters (EDLM) strategy, focusing on how all educational establishments have adopted an inquiry-based stance to move knowledge, expertise around the system to support more equitable approaches to education. The challenging context in which this strategy was initiated involved working with educators during lockdown at a time when much of the developmental work was initiated virtually due to school lockdown and then subsequently with establishments facing challenges of staffing pressures and student attendance due to the pandemic. This paper explores the extent to which an inquiry driven university-district RPP can promote the conditions to support equitable improvement across a local education system. The strategy is centred on the principle of equity, defined as ‘A process of improving the presence, participation and progress of all children and young people in nurseries and schools by identifying and addressing contextual barriers.’ The theoretical framework draws on an ecology of equity that explores issues from within- between- and beyond schools in terms of building an inquiring stance and leadership capacity by fostering authentic collaboration and a Networked Learning System (Hadfield and Chapman, 2010; Ainscow, Chapman and Hadfield, 2021; Chapman and Ainscow, 2022; Madrid Miranda and Chapman, 2021). Design based implementation research (DBIR) has been used to identify a series of design principles that underpin the approach. The evidence-base for this paper is largely drawn from in-depth interviews and focus groups with a range of school leaders and teachers within the system which have been triangulated with meeting notes and documentary evidence and other stakeholder perspectives combined with artefacts generated from collaborative action research which are important in terms of identifying progress, facilitators and barriers in creating the conditions for developing more equitable approaches to progress. Emerging findings suggest that even within the unprecedented times during the global pandemic, educators have been resourceful and resilient in terms of engaging in professional learning and developing an inquiring approach. Findings highlight institutional, local system and national facilitators and barriers to progress. These include social, political and cultural factors that can accelerate and/or dampen progress. Furthermore, there are a number of structural and procedural dimensions that operate at both the institutional and local level.

References Ainscow, M., Chapman, C. and Hadfield, M. (2020) Changing education systems: a research-based approach.Routledge Chapman, C and Ainscow, M (2022) (eds) Educational Equity: Pathways to success, Abingdon/New York: Routledge Chapman, C. (2019) From hierarchies to networks: possibilities and pitfalls for educational reform of the middle tier. Journal of Educational Administration, 57(5), pp. 554-570. (doi: 10.1108/JEA-12-2018-0222) Chapman, C. and Hadfield, M. (2010) Supporting the middle tier to engage with school-based networks: change strategies for influencing and cohering. Journal of Educational Change, 11(3), pp. 221-240. (doi: 10.1007/s10833-009-9125-y)

Schools in socioeconomic disadvantaged areas have to face challenging circumstances caused by external conditions, but schools’ underperformance can also be considered as results of insufficient process quality at school and classroom level. With regard to effective schools in challenging circumstances previous studies reveal conducive conditions for school turn-around: effective leadership practices and professional learning communities seem to be crucial (Muijs et al., 2004). Therefore, strategies for improvement have to focus mainly on enhancing the educational quality by using external support and school-to-school networks (Chapman, 2008). Effective leadership in schools facing challenging circumstances comprise strategies for building teams, delegating responsibility and encouraging teachers to set developmental goals and to foster efforts for improvement (Muijs et al., 2004; Reynolds et al. 2001). Considering the knowledge ´Leadership for Learning` (MacBeath & Townsend, 2011) seems to be an appropriate theoretical model to investigate whether leadership practices are able to initiate effective school improvement efforts in schools with trouble. Effective leadership styles for improving schools are linked to the five elements of leadership for learning in which the principal sets the focus on learning, promotes conditions for learning, fosters a dialogue about goals of learning and teaching, encourages teachers into sharing leadership and establishes a sense of shared accountability (MacBeath & Townsend, 2011; Townsend, 2019). The paper will follow two research questions: 1. Which process quality factors of the organizational culture (e.g. leadership patterns, professional teacher collaboration, data use) make a difference for improving schools with trouble? 2. How far does ´leadership for learning` influence directly and indirectly school development and the establishing of capacity for change? The research was embedded in a design-based school development program with evidence-based and suitable support or schools in networks in Germany in 31 secondary schools (2014-2020). The analyses contain structure equation models, mediator analysis and multiple regressions of individual and aggregated data of 31 schools and 980 teachers, based on standardized questionnaires, capturing context and process variables over two measuring points. The results show evidence for impacts of effective leadership practices and professional teacher collaboration on teaching development activities (Brücher, Holtappels & Webs, 2021): Leadership for learning shows a direct impact on teacher commitment and the sustainability of innovations, but indirect influence on establishing school development capacity. Beyond this, professional teacher collaboration, teacher commitment to school development and data use within the project are strong predictors for building up school development capacity in schools with trouble.

References Brücher, L., Holtappels, H. G. & Webs, T. (2021). Schulleitungshandeln an Schulen in herausfordernden Lagen – Zur Bedeutung von Leadership for Learning für den Aufbau von Schulentwicklungskapazität. In: I. Van Ackeren, H. G. Holtappels, N. Bremm & A. Hillebrand-Petri (Hrsg.), Schulen in herausfordernden Lagen – Forschungsbefunde und Schulentwicklung in der Region Ruhr. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa, S. 205-243. Chapman, C. (2008). Towards a framework for school-to-school networking in challenging circumstances. Educational Research, 50(4), 403–420. MacBeath, J. & Townsend, T. (2011). Leadership and Learning: Paradox, Paradigms and Principles. In T. Townsend & J. Macbeath (Eds.), International Handbook of Leadership for Learning. Part I (p. 1–25). Dordrecht: Springer. Muijs, D., Harris, A., Chapman, C., Stoll, L. & Russ, J. (2004). Improving Schools in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Areas – A Review of Research Evidence. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15 (2), 149–175. Reynolds, D., Hopkins, D., Potter, D. & Chapman, C. (2001): School improvement for schools facing challenging circumstances: A review of research and practice. London: DfES. Townsend, T. (2019). Changing Understandings of School Leadership. In T. Townsend (Ed.), Instructional Leadership and Leadership for Learning in Schools. Understanding Theories of Leading (p. 1-12). Palgrave Macmillan.

Over the last decade, how to solve the stubborn underperformance of around 580 schools has been a pressing question in the English government’s agenda. In its 2017 Annual Report, the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) highlighted a set of schools judged as ‘requires improvement’, ‘satisfactory’ or ‘inadequate’ in every inspection over the period from September 2005 to August 2017. Subsequently, Ofsted conducted qualitative case studies of 10 stuck and 10 ‘unstuck’ schools. ‘Fight or flight? How 'stuck' schools are overcoming isolation’ concluded that stuck schools needed more targeted assistance, following more thorough and detailed inspections that are not tied to overall grades (Ofsted, 2020). Despite Ofsted’s policy priority on ‘failing’ schools, 2 to 3% of schools nationally, have been systematically stuck or graded as less than good (‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’) since 2005, without improving. This paper draws on a Nuffield Foundation’s funded longitudinal mixed-method study oriented to better understand patterns of change over time and stakeholders’ experiences in stuck schools and their comparison group. Whilst its main findings have been reported elsewhere (Munoz-Chereau, Hutchinson and Ehren, 2022), this paper further explores the comparison ‘unstuck’ group formed by six (thee primary and three secondary) schools that after being ‘stuck’ for more than a decade, managed to improve against the odds their overall effectiveness. Methodologically, the qualitative multiple-case study combined the analysis of schools’ documents, semi-structured interviews with headteachers, teachers and governors, and focus groups with stakeholders in order to reconstruct the schools’ longitudinal inspection and improvement trajectory. Whilst ‘unstuck’ schools described how the combination of differentiated inspections, thresholds, sanctions, and public reporting amplified their difficulties and overpowered the attempts of improvement and support, they stressed how after stabilising their teams through strong leadership, managed to improve by identifying and addressing pressing areas for improvement that were under their control (such as discipline, curriculum alignment or continuous professional development) , that allowed them to turn around. Despite this multiple-case study does not provide a blueprint for what works in general, it does provide a thick description of the contexts, challenges, strengths and opportunities that allowed them to construct a positive story. Overall, the ‘stuck’ metaphor distracts attention from the unequal playing field. Findings call for more empirical longitudinal research and contributes to the research base on improvement in low-performing schools.

Ofsted (2020). ‘Fight or flight? How 'stuck' schools are overcoming isolation. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fight-or-flight-how-stuck-schools-are-overcoming-isolation Munoz-Chereau, B., Hutchinson, J., & Ehren, M. (2022). 'Stuck'schools: Can below good Ofsted inspections prevent sustainable improvement?. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10149556