This project, partly to be conducted within the framework of a Visiting Research Fellowship
at the University of Oxford, will examine how principals and teachers in highly effective and
improving schools in England understand and develop school quality. There are innumerable
models and frameworks for schools, advocating many different ways of improving school
quality. This project will focus on what really works and what works best in this respect, in
terms of achieving high impact on students learning. Focusing on England, a country with a
long tradition in school improvement both in practice and as subject of research, the project
will therefore determine (1) what principals and teachers of effective schools understand by
school quality and if their understanding differs from the understanding of principals and
teachers in less effective schools; (2) how principals of effective schools measure and develop
quality in their practice; and (3) what those principals and teachers understand by the terms
good teachers and good teaching. It will also ask (4) how the answers to these questions
can effectively inform practice in different contexts, including professional development
within schools and the process of initial teacher education, in both England and Austria.
To answer the research-questions, qualitative and quantitative methods will be applied. In a
qualitative study, 20 teachers and 20 principals of 20 highly effective and improving schools
will be questioned in expert interviews. There will be a subsequent quantitative survey with
300 teachers and 100 principals. The inclusion of various perspectives and the overview of the
results of the qualitative and quantitative study shall enable a deep and broad understanding.
To select the sample of effective schools, in which the research will be conducted, we draw
on an inclusive definition. Thus, we take into account not only attainment scores, but also
value added measures. Effective schools that will be taken into the sample are therefore
schools, in which students are led to reach their potential regardless of their social
background.
For a comprehensive, forward-looking and practice-relevant understanding of school
quality and in order to determine ways to develop it in the practice, the inclusion of the
voices of those principals and teachers who demonstrably were able to realize quality in their
schools, will be a valuable contribution. An empirical perspective from England will
contribute interesting and practically-relevant stimuli for decision-making regarding school
quality and in teacher education on different levels in the education system in Austria. The
project will be conducted by Dr Roland Bernhard (University of Salzburg) in close
cooperation with a range of project partners at the University of Oxford, Department of
Education and selected Austrian and international project partners.