Monday, July 27, 2009
Change in schools…do we embrace or resist?
New research considers how schools and school leaders engage with change compared to leaders in other public sectors such as the health service and local government.
The Training and Development Agency for schools commissioned NFER, in collaboration with the Office for Public Management, to conduct research into how schools engage with change and how the schools sector compares with other sectors such as health, local government and the police force in managing change. The NFER published its findings in July 2009. The TDA plan to use the research findings to inform their strategy and practice in assessing and supporting change in schools.
The study included a review of existing literature on change management in schools, interviews with those in charge of strategy, a large scale school survey and interviews with school leaders and leaders from other sectors.
The study concluded that the priorities and challenges faced in implementing change were the same or very similar in schools and other sectors but the approach and perception of leaders were often different.
School leaders had a greater level of support available to them than leaders in other sectors and this may be why school leaders reported feeling in control of the change process more often than other sector leaders. "Senior leaders in schools appeared to be more confident about their ability to influence and shape change compared to leaders in the other sectors." However," school leaders were less likely to be working with partners to achieve major change".
Those schools who had delivered transformative change had common success factors of staff involvement and understanding of change and of all staff being involved in the processes of monitoring, reviewing and celebrating success. "Respondents who were more confident that change could be sustained were from schools with a higher consistency of inclusiveness in terms of staff involvement in the change process."
Achieving this critical success factor was often more difficult than the school leaders perceived it to be: in interviews school leaders commonly reported that their approach to change management was collaborative and consultative but interviews with staff revealed they did not experience it that way.
"Approx 1/2 of teachers and support staff felt that staff were informed, rather than consulted with regard to change and reported feeling less involved in the whole process than senior leadership teams perceived them to be"
Very few schools had a change management team and those that did were the most successful in sustaining change.
"Staff resistance" was reported as the biggest barrier to change by school leaders and by the leaders in other sectors, although the study concluded that the majority of teachers and school staff were open and responsive to change.
Addressing this difference in perception between school leaders and their staff would improve the degree of success achieved in managing change in schools and may be where the TDA decide to focus their resources and support following this research. Promoting the use of change management models and tools may also support school leaders in achieving success because the study also concluded "school leaders were aware of a variety of change models and tools but use of them was not widespread or regular."
To read the NFER Research Report in full click here.