School Culture and leading Complex Interventions [3/3]
Complex Interventions
In a previous article, I wrote about the importance of categorising educational interventions, proposing the categories of Simple, Complicated and Complex. I believe these labels can help teachers to tailor their their approach to implementation and evaluation.
Here, I will focus on the category of Complex interventions.
What are the 3 ingredients of a complex intervention?
A complex intervention is one in which,
1. The inputs may change over time and are highly sensitive to initial conditions,
2. the change is emergent in nature,
3. the output is not necessarily predictable or measurable in a quantifiable way.
In brief, the whole process becomes more than the sum of its parts.
I contend that a great deal of school improvement fits a Complex categorisation as schools are a type of Complex Adaptive System (CAS) or perhaps more appropriately a Complex Human System. Due to the non-linear nature of processes within a CAS, Logic Modelling and Flow Diagrams are not appropriate, as they would be with an intervention that is merely Complicated. That is, we can't always go back through a neat causal diagram looking for levers to pull to improve outcomes. A more reflexive, non-linear approach must be employed throughout the stages of planning, implementation and assessing impact. These three stages should feed into each other and inform future decisions in the cycle, often in surprising ways that we wouldn't have predicted at the beginning of the process. This is because the expected change is emergent in nature. There may even be unintended consequences, good or bad. It is the nature of complex change.
The desired change may be a long time coming and it may be slippery to measure or define. But that shouldn't stop us trying.
Schools are messy, learning is messy and the vast network of human interactions in schools is very messy indeed. However, if improvement is possible, educators have a moral imperative to make progress. This progress may entail continuous self-reflection over a long period of time, but can lead to dynamic changes in direction and emphases based on interrogation of outputs.
For example, let's consider the long term goal of improving behaviour and culture. A school I recently visited in Northumberland had clearly cracked this - they were a few years in to a complex process, the results of which could be felt in the corridors. The CEO of the trust showed us around the school during a break-time: the transition between lessons was purposeful, but not silent; staff were visible, but not having to chivvy students along; the atmosphere was happy, behaviour was consensual and it was clearly a lovely place in which to study and work.
How had they done it?
The CEO pointed to a whole range of strategies, all which needed daily reinforcement and re-examination: the whole school culture was very much more than the sum of the parts, which included uniform, high expectations of conduct, respect, care of the facilities, visible staff, role modelling from older students, clear instructions, sanctions and rewards, the list goes on....
The complex nature of the change was perhaps not explicitly stated, but it was clear in everything I heard. How did it fit the 3-part categorisation?
1. There were multiple, small inputs and attention to detail was evident: 'all teachers are leaders here, because we lead children in the culture of our community'. There was an understanding of the sensitivity of any interventions to the particular initial conditions of this school and community context. What has worked here might not have worked everywhere.
"We can never establish universal accounts of causality in complex systems by using... Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs). However, through careful comparison and exploration of complex contingent causation, we can begin to get a handle on what works where (in what context), when (in what temporal context), and in what order." Byrne (2013)
2. Furthermore, the mechanism for change was complex. While there was a confidence in the long term success of their approach: 'in schools we all get the culture we deserve', it would have been bizarre for the CEO to point one of the many 'levers' that were pulled, or even a sequence, that had engendered such an impressive final result. The change had indeed emerged. Where the culture hadn't worked, say in the conduct of certain individuals, there was an understanding of the complexity of context at an individual level, and an acceptance that these pockets would inevitably emerge in a human system (especially one involving teenagers!) and could be resolved compassionately.
"We can never assign a causal effect to any intervention without assessing the whole context of that intervention." Byrne (2013)
3. As for outcomes and evidence of impact, for sure a tracking of a reduction in sanctions (for example) might show quantifiable change, but such metrics wouldn't do justice to the change as a whole piece of work. Far more important was a qualitative 'feel' of the school. I have no doubt that interviews, surveys of staff, students and teachers, would indicate positive change in the culture, and the leadership was humble enough to monitor all such indicators and make 'live' changes to the tactics where needed. For example, a one-way corridor system had been retained since COVID, as it had reduced incidents of poor behaviour in corridors during transition times (one of several 'COVID-keepers' as they called them!)
The underlying factor to any emergent change is time. As the CEO stated, 'there is no point as assessing this in 6 months or even 18 months: all of our key strategy points are over 3 years'. This longitudinal vision gave the staff stability and there was a clarity of direction to the organisation. While the over-arching objective and strategy were long term, the tweaks happened in the tactics. From a Theory of Change perspective, the Outcome to create an outstanding school culture was fixed and clear, but the Activities were open to live adaptation, monitoring and reinforcement in response to ongoing collection of a range of KPIs. In complex interventions, a reasonable KPI could even be 'does the school community feel like one you would be happy for your children to be part of?', as the CEO suggested. I couldn't help but answer this with an emphatic, 'yes'.
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Further Reading
Byrne, David. (2014). Thoughts on a Pedagogy OF Complexity. Complicity: An International Journal of Complexity and Education. 11. 10.29173/cmplct22963.Byrne, D. (2013) 'Evaluating complex social interventions in a complex world.', Evaluation., 19 (3). pp. 217-228.
Conformity Experiment: Conformity Experiment - YouTube
An interesting illustration of the Psychology of changing group culture.
[thanks to Sean Harris for this!]
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