Schulentwicklungsberatung in schulischen Innovationsprozessen

Abstract

The support and development of schools, particularly of those schools in challenging situations, represents an essential goal of education policy measures. Within of the large number of support mechanisms, school development consulting is one way of relieving schools of the challenge of initiating and implementing development activities. Despite the prevalence of school development consulting, it is evident that the nationwide institutionalization of school development consulting has only been completed in recent years (Dedering, 2019). The reappraisal of counseling has so far been largely theoretical and conceptual. An initial empirical examination was conducted in the German-speaking world by Dedering, Tillmann, Goecke and Rauh (2013) and Goecke (2018). The focus of this examination was on, among other things, objectified framework conditions of external school development consulting as well as on the presentation of consulting processes in schools. In addition, Adenstedt (2016) researched state school development consulting in Germany. All three studies contributed significantly to increase of insights regarding the implementation, content, and framework of school development consulting. Despite these research findings, questions about strategies, characteristics, process trajectories, and conditions for successful guidance processes as well as questions around school development guidance in schools in challenging situations remain unanswered. The present study is based on this research situation. Its aim is, firstly, to reconstruct guidance processes in schools and, secondly, to identify supporting characteristics for school development guidance. An analysis of case studies has been undertaken to approach the research topic. A special feature of the study is the criteria-based case selection of schools in challenging situations. First and foremost, characteristics of the initiation and implementation phase of school development activities in cooperation with a school development consultant are identified. Firstly, typical characteristics will be identified while consulting during the introduction and implementation of school development measures. Subsequently, in relation to the model of organizational consulting as a social system (Goecke, 2018; Dedering et al, 2013), characteristics of the school development consultant(s) (consultant system), prerequisites, expectations and perceptions of the school actors (client system), as well as aspects that favor school development consulting (consulting system) within the interaction between consultants and school actors are identified. Through the multi-method presentation of four case schools in challenging situations, counseling processes at schools in critical situations can be empirically reconstructed and presented in detail for the first time. Typical characteristics of the initiation phase are: the familiarization phase within small groups, the description of the current situation by the school actors, moderated target agreements by the school development consultant(s), the elaboration of action plans as well as the planning of concrete steps and, in part, feedback discussions about the consulting process. The implementation phase is characterized by the following: the involvement of the entire college in the development activity, the adaptation of the agreed goals in the course of the process, the development of materials, test phases and evaluation phases of the concepts as well as their renewed revision and the formulation of target agreements. The evaluation of interview studies with experts during the consultation process identifies 18 conditions for success from a multi-perspective point of view, which support school development consultation from the point of view of the interviewee groups. Among other things, the interviewees name competencies of the consulting person such as expert and process knowledge, interpersonal skills, and the possibility of flexible adaptation of the consulting process. The client system characterizes, among other things, an initiating and supporting school management and steering group. The counseling system includes the characteristics of building trust between clients and counseling personnel as well as a constant exchange between the actors. Regarding to the special features of counseling at schools in challenging situations, according to the interviewees, a high degree of sensitivity and empathy on the part of the counselor as well as context-sensitive counseling, represent characteristics that can be emphasized. From a multi-perspective point of view, the results show that school administrators, teachers who were actively involved in the consultation process, and school development consultants within accompanying school development activities identify consistent aspects that can contribute to the success of school development consultation.