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Potter, David (2025) IMPROVEMENT IN WHAT? How understanding of school improvement in England evolved between 1970 and 2020. Doctoral thesis, University of Gloucestershire. doi:10.46289/BMUN7859
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Abstract
This research investigates three aspects of school improvement, a movement that dominated schooling in England in the last quarter of the twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first: its history (origins and evolution), how it has worked, and its impact. Two main methods are used: a survey of scholarly and grey literature and semi-structured interviews with over 30 distinguished leaders, policymakers and researchers in the field. There is an element of autoethnography, using the author’s lengthy experience of school improvement research and practice to triangulate the evidence gathered. The thesis attempts a thorough analysis of the factors contributing to the rise of improvement, classifies them into those from within education and those from the febrile socio-econo-political environment of the time, and shows how they worked together with the new knowledge of school effectiveness to drive improvement. An explanation is offered for the speed with which relevant research, legislation and practice burgeoned. The literature concerning the ‘what’ of improvement is more extensive than that concerning the ‘how’. The largest section of the thesis is devoted to the views of interviewees concerning how improvement is brought about, particularly how it is led. This analysis leads to the development of a new model for school improvement; most existing models are predicated on the turnround of a failing school in a challenging setting, whereas this model emphasises the sustained improvement of schools in various contexts. Analysing the impact of the 50-year history of school improvement is made difficult by the elusive nature of some data. The thesis highlights the neglect in the literature of underlying or fundamental improvement in schools (their improvement as inclusive, humane places for young people to learn in) and contends that Ofsted’s potential to promote school improvement has largely been lost through changes in inspection methodology. As well as contributing to practice through the development of a new model of improvement, the thesis clarifies how school improvement evolved and how leaders bring it about.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) | |||||||||
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | school effectiveness; school improvement; improvement model; leadership for improvement | |||||||||
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) L Education > LA History of education |
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| Divisions: | Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education, Health and Sciences | |||||||||
| Depositing User: | Anne Pengelly | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jul 2026 13:04 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 03 Jul 2026 13:04 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/16413 |
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