Leading empowered evaluations to develop trust and improve learning: Insights from qualitative research

What does ‘empowering teachers-as-evaluators’ mean in whole-school strategic planning and evaluation? Our work seeks to develop and empower teachers as whole-of-school evaluators to embrace ownership of the school’s plan and directions, build communities of practice, create transparency, openness and trust, and ultimately improve student learning outcomes. Our previous research in whole-school qualitative empowerment evaluation showed that principals who were fully engaged in their schools’ evaluations were more likely to be influenced by the evaluation process, use the evaluation results and build evaluation capacity than those who merely participated as a guest. They engaged in double-loop learning. We further found that key values, such as trust, acted as catalysts for evaluation influence. This raised questions as to whether the influences on principals from this research would also apply to all staff if they were similarly engaged in their whole-school’s evaluation. We describe one school’s ongoing journey since 2015 in such a process and our research findings to date. Our findings draw on observation, interview and questionnaire data from all staff at all levels in the school. The research reveals that as staff members develop transparency and trust in the process and with each other, their understanding of and input into the school’s plan and directions are increasing and their evaluation capacity is being built.