Developing the whole-school workforce in England: building cultures of engagement

Dramatic changes have occurred in the composition of the schools’ workforce in England over recent years to incorporate a much higher proportion of support staff. Consequently, policy-makers and school leaders are now placing increasing emphasis on addressing the training and development needs of the whole workforce, rather than solely focusing on the professional development of teachers. This paper considers how some schools are endeavouring to meet these wider needs and the challenges that they face in doing so. It draws on the evaluation of a project that engaged 45 schools in developing and implementing new strategies and approaches in this area. Relating the findings to recent theorising about the role of organisational cultures in facilitating or inhibiting the learning of their members, the paper draws out three key shared characteristics of nine schools that most successfully addressed the needs of the whole-school workforce: a culture conducive to learning for all members of the school community; approaches that go beyond invitation to the orchestration of genuine engagement; and a recognition of the complexity of staff needs and perspectives when viewed across the workforce as a whole.