Sustaining school improvement initiatives: advice from educational leaders

Figures & data

Table 1. Exemplars of components of sustainability.

Theme	Components	Exemplar participant statements
Organisational culture	Site improvement	It (wellbeing) ties in with our culture and legacy
Personal dispositions	Agency	I did a session connecting this with TfEL (Teaching for Effective Learning) strategies to encourage teachers to frame their thinking around positive education
	Resilience	You are doing a million things and you think “Do I have to do that again?!”
Implementation processes	Programme selection	The “why” first of all, to be able to talk about the “why” and have enough evidence
	Planning	The earlier you embed it into the strategic plan, the better
	Leading	Leadership supports us
	Commitment	We’ve got vision, commitment, and passion
	Involvement	The on-going problem is teachers’ involvement, the “buy-in” – some never will, and others will do anything anytime
	Teams	They need to work as part of a group where they can get together and plan activities together
Organisational capacity	External connections	So, we align ourselves with organisations that we trust and believe in
	Capabilities	Emma (principal) hired us for our expertise and doesn’t micromanage us
	Funding	We are being clever with our money
	Staffing	They have chosen certain people with certain attitudes to learning, a certain expectation of education, a certain involvement in their own professional world
	Time	Can deliver lots of curriculum content in a small amount of time by weaving it all together
Data collection	Implementation data	The parents came up to me and told me what their kids had done and what they brought home
	Outcomes data	Then get continual feedback, keep nurturing it
Change orientation	Adaptability	Being open to adaptability is the key
	Processes	One of the first jobs was to write a school environmental management plan, and part of the process was to connect everything we do into the school curriculum
	Relationships	I can always come back to them, and I knew I had their support
	Site renewal	You see schools that got re-invented at the whole-school level

Table 2. Characteristics and descriptions of participants, sites, and initiatives in this study.

Site	Site description	Initiative type	Interviewee ^a	Gender	Role
A	The primary school campus of a private (fee-paying) boys-only Catholic school	Environmental Management	Mary	Female	Director of teaching and learning
			Caleb	Male	Maintenance manager
			Sue	Female	Sustainability officer
B	The education team from a national organisation consisting of a mix of state and regional government, community, and non-governmental agencies whose priorities are in natural resource management	Education for [environmental] Sustainability (EfS)	Alex	Male	Education manager
			Ben	Male	Regional coordinator
			Deb	Female	Acting education coordinator, registered teacher
C	A public (state-funded) co-educational secondary school at a coastal suburb consisting mostly of least disadvantaged communities	Positive Education	Kate	Female	School principal
			Liz	Female	School deputy principal
			Amy	Female	Programme committee lead, teacher
D	A private (fee-paying) girls-only non-denominational Christian school for early learning to secondary schooling that also provides boarding options for girls living away from home	Fostering Students’ Wellbeing	Pam	Female	Leader of wellbeing
			Walter	Male	Curriculum coordinator
			Emma	Female	School principal

^a Names are pseudonyms.

Table 3. Site-specific strategies and their key emergent products.

Site	Strategies	Emergent products
A	Collective community action Working in teams Professional education Engaging externals Sourcing for independent sources of funding Engaging teachers and volunteers with specific expertise and backgrounds Collecting and recording data Engaging in reflective dialogue Integrating initiative into curriculum and school culture	Distributed leadership Culture change Programme-specific committees Student voice and leadership Collaboration and partnership with the wider community Professional learning communities Context-specific integrated curricula Staff and community empowerment Renewal of the student buddy system Portable gardens, cooking programme (e.g., making and selling own sauce) Environmental and waste management
B	Building relationships Resource development and sharing Utilising staff expertise Professional education Developing negotiation skills Prioritising and addressing needs Integrating initiative into the curriculum and school culture Collecting and recording data Promoting ideas to leaders Engaging students to advocate for improvement Engaging in reflective dialogue	Distributed leadership Culture change Needs-specific resources Measurement tools Professional learning communities Student voice and leadership Revised protocol for prioritising staff and resource investment Collaboration and partnership with schools, government and non-governmental bodies, and other programmes Environmental sustainability
C	Working in teams Professional education Collecting and recording data Engaging staff and students Re-distribution of staff workload Including initiative-specific criteria into job specifications Allocating time for meetings and training	Distributed leadership Culture change Programme committee Professional learning communities School improvement model New leadership structure Growth mindset poster Student voice and leadership New resources for training (e.g., how to include positive education into classroom teaching) New model for student leadership
D	Intentional selection of initiative, partnerships, and staff Utilising staff expertise Professional education Employment of staff into initiative-specific positions Engaging teachers Working in teams Sharing of information Time allocated for meetings and training Piloting new ideas Engaging in reflective dialogue Engaging expert help Collecting and recording data	Distributed leadership Culture change Daily teacher–student wellbeing conversations Professional learning communities Revised wellbeing framework Context-specific integrated curricula

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of this research and ethics conditions of anonymity and data privacy, data are not available to researchers not named in the original ethics application.