Into the black box: A cross-country exploration of the mechanisms driving education reform implementation

• In Event: Educational reforms for innovative approaches to strategy and learning

Proposal

Education reform is ubiquitous. But this ubiquity belies reformers’ regular struggles to sustainably implement change in practice (Fullan, 2016). Globally, nations and foundations pour billions each year into devising promising pedagogical changes. Yet, all too often, these policies fail to take root, wasting time, money, and—most importantly—untold human potential (Ball, 2015; Hallinger & Heck, 2011; Hargreaves, 2009).

Scholars regularly apply diverse lenses to guide analysis of implementational challenges, including the cognitive (e.g., Spillane, Reiser, & Reimer, 2002), relational (e.g., K. D. Könings, Brand‐Gruwel, & Merriënboer, 2005), and affective (e.g., Hord & Hall, 2006). They seek to explain change enactment across multiple levels of action, from policy coherence (e.g., Hill, 2014; Mazmanian & Sabatier, 1981) and social structures (Daly, 2010; Spillane et al., 2002) to classroom-level interpretation (Ball, Maguire, & Braun, 2012; Coburn, 2005). However, an extensive literature search reveals that no research to date has attempted to build a causal mechanistic theory of sustainable reform implementation across contexts.

This study attempts to peer into the black box of national education reform policymaking to determine the causal mechanisms enabling sustainable change. I employ a theory-building process-tracing approach, relying on Bayesian analysis to comparatively assess national reform case studies from Finland, Portugal, and Canada. Ministerial interviews and hundreds of policy documents provide core data for thematic content analysis and inferential testing.

My work uncovers three major mechanisms linking national policy reform to on-the-ground, classroom-level change:

1) Defining and aligning collective values between policymakers, administrators, teachers, and parents by utilizing participatory design methodologies;

2) Demonstrating reform practicality by building evidence, modeling practice, and showing alignment with existing behaviors; and

3) Cultivating local agency by building leadership capacity that enables front-line culture-setting.

My current, confirmatory work in India tests this theory of sustainable education reform in practice. I complement the retrospective, top-down, comparative nature of this study with longitudinal, grassroots, single-case data on the implementational journey of New Delhi’s novel “Happiness Curriculum.” Deductive thematic analysis of curriculum artefacts, policy documents, and interviews with implementers and participants from schools and civil society further confirm the causal power of these mechanisms.

Taken together, this work speaks to the exigencies of reformers across the globe, who seek that elusive “secret sauce” for implementing educational change. It prompts a level of policymaking reflexivity, drawing attention to the mindsets, attitudes, and agency of educational constituencies for reform design and enactment. Ultimately, these findings bring us one step closer to ensuring all children are prepared to thrive in a fast-changing world.

Author

• Adam Barton, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge