Conference Agenda

Purpose and Theoretical Framework

The Teacher Training Center (TTC) provided three years of contextualized, equity-centered professional development (PD) to instructional coaches, teachers, and principals focused on a student engagement method (SEM). They provided ongoing feedback to instructional coaches and teachers, meeting with them in a pre-conference, giving real-time suggestions, and debriefing in a post-conference. Additional services were tailored to help principals support SEM implementation. This study explores implementation of the coaching model in five underperforming schools in an urban US district.

We use sensemaking theory to describe how key implementers—district leaders, principals, coaches, and teachers—make sense of and implement the coaching model. Prior research has demonstrated that principals and coaches can act as critical sensegivers during program implementation (Coburn, 2005; Coburn & Woulfin, 2012); this study expounds on the sensemaking literature to show that a systemic approach that activates all sensegivers in the service of implementation is key to improving teaching and learning.

Methods and Data Source

This study analyzes various data, including surveys, coaching observations, teacher focus groups, and documents (e.g., school improvement plans). In 2021-22, coaches completed 323 coaching cycles for 91 teachers across 5 schools. Observations accounted for how closely the teacher conformed to expectations associated with SEM, while surveys and focus groups captured reactions to the coaching model. We used a sensemaking lens to deductively and inductively code data to isolate the institutional, individual, and social factors contributing to sensemaking (Spillane et al., 2002).

Findings

Coaches act as critical sensegivers, so they need adequate knowledge and time to commit to their roles. Coaching, and its necessary shift to a culture of continuous improvement, has been well-received by teachers and principals. One teacher shared that because coaching is received by everyone, not just “when something goes wrong,” it develops a growth mindset. Almost 60% of coaching focused on SEM, rather than a different pedagogical method, suggesting teachers’ commitment to implementation. Principals appreciate that coaching is aligned to school priorities, and they value having a coach they can “bounce ideas off.” Coaching on the use of this strategy provides common language and a unified message in each school. This coaching model is not isolated: it is embedded in an intensive and focused change initiative adopted by the district. Coaches, school, and district leaders activate to ensure that teachers have the resources and support they need to improve instruction and classroom management.

Significance and Connection to Conference Theme

Coaching is essential to improving teaching and learning, so it is worth exploring how a school district implements a new coaching model. Although the coordinated approach is clear to the district, the need for various initiatives to support change is not always evident for teachers, so leaders must consistently communicate the “why” behind initiatives as well as the ways in which they overlap to support systemic change. Our focus on better understanding the implementation of quality coaching aligns directly with the conference’s theme on “quality professional education for enhanced school effectiveness and improvement.”

This proposal reports on over 20 years of research findings from Australian case studies that focus on successful school leadership as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) and follows ISSPP methodology protocols. It draws upon findings from five Tasmanian, eighteen Victorian and one Northern Territory multiple perspective case studies of successful primary, secondary and special school principals. At each school, data collected included interviews with the principal, senior teachers, teachers, students, parents and school council members and document analysis. The case studies cover government, Catholic and independent schools. The research focused on successful school leadership rather than effective schools. Successful school leadership includes a wide range of student and school outcomes rather than a narrow range of student academic achievements.

Overall, the findings showed that successful principals demonstrated personal qualities, a set of common leadership practices, key behaviours, strategic interventions and capacity building that helped them achieve positive school outcomes. Successful principals were able to understand and effectively work within a complex set of contextual layers that encompassed their work environment. We have found that our successful principals are less constrained by context and are able to work within and across constraints. All the principals were able to lead change by innovating for school improvement.

In the paper, we will outline the personal qualities, leadership practices, behaviours and interventions of successful principals from our findings. More importantly for this presentation, we also intend to focus on the principals’ capability to initiate and implement change for school improvement. We classify our Victorian case studies into three levels of innovation. Principals were identified as either using incremental, transformational or disruptive practices to lead innovation. Principals in schools that were categorised as ‘incremental’ attempted to consolidate school improvement through incremental change and embedding the change into teaching and learning. Leaders in the schools in the ‘transformational’ change category used leadership practices that were mildly disruptive. The change was strategic and focused on individual, professional, organisational, and community capacity building strategies. School improvement interventions were centred on school and community needs and priorities. They were able to build professional development and appraisal; set priorities based on data about performance; and communicate purpose, process and performance. Schools in the disruptive category witnessed a dynamic change. Principals in this category transformed almost every aspect of the school. We identify seven disruptive practices that characterise these principals’ relentless orientation to change.

Finally, we will pull all our research altogether into a model we call an open systems model for school student and school improvement. The model attempts to integrate our findings to try to make sense of the relationship between the various aspects to show the complexity and interrelationship of the factors described in the findings. The paper connects to the conference theme because successful principals build teachers' professional and individual capacity to improve teaching and learning to improve student outcomes academically and more broadly.

Whilst enhancing the wellbeing of students has been a priority for many governments, the same cannot be said of teacher wellbeing, given the scarce research in this area. The current study examined how much factors such as having a wellbeing policy, wellbeing CPD, management caring about staff, having wellbeing on staff meeting agenda, and support strategies in place predict teachers’ personal wellbeing, after controlling for age. A total of 293 teachers participated in the study, most of whom were females (69.5%), from a range of second level schools located in both rural and urban areas across all four provinces in Ireland. The Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC-SF) was applied to measure wellbeing. The results indicated that only two factors (i) putting support strategies in place, and (ii) school leaders caring about teachers, predicted teacher wellbeing. The implications of the study are discussed along with recommendations for policy and future research.

The aim of this paper is to describe a school district’s exploration of system change using an inquiry model. This model demonstrates how leveraging different layers of the system and resources within the system can create opportunities for change.

In the pursuit of dynamic system change, educational leaders face the challenge of leveraging existing structures, optimizing available resources, and transforming constraints into opportunities for growth. This paper explores the journey of the Richmond School District in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, where the implementation of the Spirals of Inquiry Framework (Halbert & Kaser, 2013 & 2022) has been instrumental in driving sustained educational change over the last several years. With the district's strategic plan for 2020-2025 well underway, the focus lies on identifying effective organizational and instructional strategies and layering those strategies to facilitate system evolution.

With a layered approach that addresses a single big idea, namely "how we use inquiry to create and sustain system change," educators at different levels of the system tailor their approaches to match the specific needs of their educational context. Many teachers engage in Inquiry Grant projects to deepen their learning and improve their pedagogy. Schools engage in an inquiry to tell the story of their school and develop a focus for learning each year. By gathering data through engaging with students via a scanning process that asks meaningful questions, the responses are then used to support growth and change effectively by connecting to the existing structures, such as the curriculum.

Several foundational qualities have emerged as key drivers of success in school communities that make a significant difference for learners (Halbert & Kaser, 2022). These qualities include clarity of purpose and alignment with broader objectives, persistent curiosity manifested through active questioning and attentive listening, a growth mindset that believes in continuous improvement, a commitment to equity by proactively addressing barriers to success, and collaborative teamwork within schools and across communities. In the Richmond School District, the work of educators is deeply embedded in these foundational qualities due to growing and embedded engagement in the Spirals of Inquiry processes.

We also know that adaptive expertise plays a crucial role in enabling system change. By thinking evaluatively about the impact on student outcomes, seeking deep knowledge to make a greater difference, engaging in metacognitive thinking, fostering collaboration, and acting responsively and systemically, educational leaders can effectively navigate the complexities of change (Timperley & Twyford, 2021). By consistently posing the question, Have we made enough of a difference to student learning?, educators are invited to examine their processes, ask students questions, engage in professional learning and reflect on their practice to meaningfully meet the needs of their learners.

The hunger for genuine processes of change is evident across educational systems, and the need for system leaders has never been greater in a post-pandemic world. By leveraging existing structures, optimizing available resources, and embracing constraints as opportunities for growth, educational leaders in the Richmond school district are creating and sustaining system change that fosters equity, supports student success, and prepares learners for an evolving world.