This post is the first in a series of blog posts with Ceri Dean, Danette Parsley, and Mike Siebersma to introduce the School Improvement Consultant Framework.
My father was a big proponent of on-the-job training, OJT as he called it. Now that I’m thinking about it, he usually talked about OJT when he was trying to get us to help him build radios as part of his amateur radio hobby, so there might have been some self-interest at play!
OJT works well when building radios because the knowledge and skills for doing that are well-defined. Learning to be a school improvement consultant also involves OJT, but there is a lack of clarity and consistency in how people think about the focus for that OJT and other learning experiences for school improvement consultants.
So, what exactly do school improvement consultants need to know and be able to do? Education research has provided us with a lot of information about the knowledge and skills it takes to improve schools. And cross-sector research has addressed the role of consultants and coaches more generally. By bringing those bodies of research together and drawing on our collective experience, we aim to bring clarity, coherence, and consistency to how people think about the school improvement consultant role through our School Improvement Consultant Framework.
School Improvement Framework
At its heart, school improvement consulting is a helping relationship based on trust. To show this, the framework is grounded by a set of consulting principles that guide consultants’ use of their knowledge and skills.
The label “use of self” might be new to you, but chances are, you’ve used this concept—perhaps unconsciously—in your work. Use of self means using awareness of yourself—including all that you know, have done, and are as a person—and awareness of the client and their context in the right way at the right time to help the client.
The next area of the framework focuses on process skills and tools. These are the workhorses of school improvement and figure prominently along with change acumen. The word “acumen” emphasizes that school improvement consultants and clients need deep knowledge and insight about the change process to accomplish their goals.
Likewise, both consultants and clients must apply their content expertise to understand and address what is needed to achieve their outcomes.
You might ask, “Why a capacity building zone? Isn’t the whole framework about building capacity?” Yes and no. The capacity building zone emphasizes that “helping” includes taking advantage of or ensuring there are opportunities to enhance the client’s ability to engage in school improvement, achieve outcomes, and sustain improvement. Sometimes capacity building will be an important focus of your work with a client, and sometimes it will be a by-product.
The framework also illustrates the relative balance between consultant and client capabilities and responsibilities. For example, the consulting principles are the domain of the consultant. The content expertise area indicates that both the consultant and client have content expertise, but the client has the primary responsibility for using that expertise.
Whether you are new to the profession or a veteran, this framework provides a guide for your learning and ongoing development. And, in the words of radio, “stay tuned”—we’ll be exploring each of the components of the framework in more depth in future blog posts.
Download the School Improvement Consulting Framework with descriptions of the six components.
