Leading Educational Change by Learning from Failure in Networks

• In Event: Networks as Sites of Leadership Learning: Failures, Readiness and Absorptive Capacity

Abstract

Purpose: Facilitating change within and across complex networks is a core challenge for educational leadership (Author(s)., 2024a). This study examines how leaders navigate this challenge by exploring their experiences of learning from failure within a professional learning network (PLN). Using the implementation of a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) for student mental health as the context, our research addresses two questions: (1) What kinds of failure do leaders experience when facilitating educational change? and 2) How do these failures vary across their work? This research invites a reframing of failure as a generative source of learning for developing leadership capacity through PLNs (De Keyser et al., 2021).

Perspectives: To analyze how leaders in networks facilitate change, we integrate two conceptual frameworks. First, the integrated Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services (i-PARIHS) framework posits that successful change is a function of facilitation acting upon innovation, recipients, and context (Harvey & Kitson, 2016). Leaders are regarded as active facilitators who align people and processes across network boundaries. Second, we use Edmondson’s (2011) Spectrum of Reasons for Failure framework to interrogate the diversity of leaders’ experiences with failure. Together, these frameworks allow us to analyze how leaders make sense of and respond to setbacks.

Methods: This study employed a qualitative methodology to examine leadership and change within a network context. We facilitated a short-term PLN that brought together leaders from the education and health sectors, creating a cross-organizational network focused on the shared goal of MTSS implementation. Data were analyzed using a deductive approach, with a coding scheme informed by the i-PARIHS and Edmondson (2011) frameworks to identify patterns in how leaders within this network experienced and learned from failure.

Data Sources: The primary data source consists of 19 semi-structured interviews with leaders participating in the PLN. The interviewees included 11 education system leaders, four school leaders, two health system leaders, and two school-based counsellors. This cross-sectoral sample provided rich evidence of the failures encountered when leading change across organizational and professional boundaries.
Results: Our findings reveal that leaders facilitating change predominantly experienced failures related to process inadequacy and task challenges. Process failures (e.g., fragmented implementation and the absence of shared data infrastructures) highlight the difficulty of aligning systems. Task challenges were most acute where the leaders’ capacity was strained, particularly in under-resourced contexts. Critically, we found a notable absence of failures related to exploratory or hypothesis testing (Edmondson, 2011), suggesting that systemic pressures within the study context may have discouraged leaders from engaging in the risk-taking necessary for change efforts.
Significance: This study contributes to the literature on educational leadership and change by examining how PLNs can function as crucial sites for learning from failure. Moreover, by reframing failure as a core component of leading change, our findings offer insights for leaders and policymakers on how to structure and support networks that foster the open dialogue and psychological safety necessary to drive meaningful improvement in education.

Authors

• Stephen W. MacGregor, University of Calgary

• Sharon Friesen, University of Calgary